The Universe Twins
by iUsedToPostBackInTheDay
Summary: Mom-Swap AU! When Garnet gives up her physical form to give life to twins everything gets absolutely turned on it's head. Now Rose, Pearl, Amethyst, Bismuth, and Greg have to raise them to become the saviors of the Universe. In this first installment the twins will have to figure out how to use their basic powers, work on starting a band with the cool kids, and to find a lost gem.
1. Prologue

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

It was five thousand years ago when mom came into existence, before then the future was fair game as momma Sapphire would always see the paths of time like a constantly flowing river, and momma Ruby was merely part of her entourage of gems sworn to protect her with their lives.

One fateful day the winds of destiny were blowing a fierce gale that would bring upon an enormous change that would not only effect momma Sapphire and momma Ruby, but the rest of gem-kind and even if mom didn't realize it, human-kind as well.

Momma Sapphire was sent to Earth with her entourage including momma Ruby at the behest of their former leader Blue Diamond. Blue Diamond was a gigantic statuesque being who instilled fear and sadness into all who were relegated to her court. It was in this place, at this era that momma Garnet would take her first glances at life and love.

There was a terrible war prior to momma Garnet's existence, Blue Diamond's fellow diamond Pink was shattered here on this planet, and in the wake of it all she heralded the front. Blue courting all her fellow diamond's gems, leading them at her fortress: the Sky Arena, but even though all seemed calm Blue still wanted the guidance of a Sapphire to assist her future plans.

Sapphire approached the behemoth. Being so small compared to the Diamond she spoke with such assurance as if their height difference didn't matter. She predicted the sudden appearance of the rebel's leader Rose Quartz and her terrifying Pearl claiming the lives of three gems, including herself. As the day progressed, Sapphire's prediction came true, Rose Quartz and her Pearl made a sudden appearance, and the other two Ruby's in her entourage were shattered. Momma Sapphire had already accepted her fate, standing stoically awaiting certain death, but just as the renegade Pearl drew her spear and began to come at Sapphire, momma Ruby swooped in at the last second to save Sapphire.

That one sole gesture of love was the catalyst needed to bring the two together in fusion, and there she was, Momma Garnet, a blend of two different gems… being mocked by other gems at the "appalling" sight of these two in glorious fusion. That day changed so much, from then on mom was always fused, she joined Rose Quartz and her Pearl on their crusade to get the Diamonds off the planet, but not every story involving a war could possibly have a happily ever after.

One day, five-thousand years later, Rose appeared to mom seeking advice on the future. Rose wanted to know if their jobs were done protecting the Earth, but not even Rose -who prided herself in never being shocked or surprised by anything- was expecting the answer mom had for her. Mom took a deep breath and looked at Rose with a very gleeful yet skeptical look on her face, "No. You will still be fighting off the Diamonds and others, but it's strange because after a certain point, my future vision goes dark, and I can't see anything beyond that. I do see me though with a drastically different form, I get heavy… huh? I also see a young human with message to deliver before my form change, he's handsome…?" Then momma Ruby and momma Sapphire had unfused for the first time in a thousand years.

That young man is our father Greg. He taught our mom how to just be and love it, still something magical was growing between the gem fusion and the human man, but neither had realized it for quite a while. Several years later, mom was gone and her place was a boy and a girl: the boy was born with a deep tan and a blue gemstone on his left hand, as for the girl she was born with beautiful dark red hair and a red gemstone on her right hand, and you might be wondering their names. Well my name is Cyrene and my brother's name is Phineas, but you can call us Cy and Finn. This is the story of our shared Universe…


	2. The Birthday Bandit

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

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**WRITER's Note to audience:** I'm extremely happy that this got such a positive response! I'm over the moon! Big shout-out to my cousin who help edit half this chapter! Also just to give an idea, I cranked this out under some crazy circumstances in about two days, and having said that, I don't think that will be the case with every chapter. A week might be a bit more accurate, especially if I'm writing a more emotional chapter (they might take longer), so I appreciate your patience. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to field them in a sort of Q&A between chapters! Once again I'm humbled by the reaction this story has gotten! Thank you guys! Enjoy!

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**Chapter 1: The Birthday Bandit**

A beautiful sunrise started to peek through the curtains in Finn's room. The sunshine is cascading a wiggly line of light across his face, and as the light started getting more intense Finn opened one eye wearily. He then shot up violently with a scowl on his face, proceeding to throw the covers over his head, before laying back down. His room was one half of a loft that he shared with his twin sister Cyrene. It was divided by a fake wall that gave the two their own privacy, but somedays it wasn't enough as Finn heard her moving around already. He felt the bed shift, lifted the covers, and there was Cyrene. Cy was sitting at the foot of Finn's bed wearing a blue royal cape with a matching crown. She was holding onto what appeared to be a matching set in red.

"Happy Birthday, bro-tato!" Cy began as she plucked a noise maker from her dress pocket and tooted a cute but shrill noise, "Rose and Amethyst said they had a surprise for us!" She hopped of the corner of the bed tooting the horn while running around Finn's room with the red cape in her hands flowing behind her like the blue one she sported.

Finn rubbed the sleepers out from the corner of his eyes and stifled a yawn before saying, "How long have you been up?" He was just too tired for all of his sister's unbridled energy. A change of pace given he would usually be the one up early and bouncing around like a carefree toddler.

Cy stopped and threw the cape at him, "Since four! It's six now! So you know what that means!" Cy was usually quiet and kept to herself, but for some reason their birthday was always a special case. She threw all her reservations out the window for one day and acted like a banshee. She ran up beside him, "We're officially twelve!"

Finn was just about to roll back over and pass out again when a large seven-foot tall woman was seen hovering in front of the twins loft. She had elegant pink hair that curled ever so meticulously down her back, and wore a white floor length dress that had a star cut out on her belly. Within the star was a beautiful pink gemstone that matched her pink hair, "Good morning you two! I see someone's already in her birthday suit," the pink haired lady spoke with a gentleness, referring to Cy, who beamed widely.

"Good morning, Rose," the twins responded, Cy very animated while her brother was looking annoyed, "So what's the surprise! Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Cy was bouncing around the loft again.

Rose landed gracefully on the hardwood flooring of the loft laughing merrily, "You know if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise!" She picked up Cy and looked at her funny, "Did you have coffee today?" Cy just burst into laughter, "I'll take that as a yes!"

From the stairs leading up to the loft the twins and Rose heard a voice call out to them all, "Yo Rose, Cy, Finn! Get your butts ready, Greg said he'd be here soon! And I'm hungry for some slammin' HOMEMADE WAFFLES!" The voice came from a purple gem who was coming up the stairs. This gem, in comparison to Rose, was more edgier looking with tattered style that resembled a rock star. Her gem covered up slightly by the outfit and her hair was ghostly white. She body slammed the bed and then Cy jumped from Rose's grasp on top of Amethyst, who shape shifted into a badly imitated horse. Finn jumped out of bed surprised by the sudden appearance of the barn animal gem in his bed. He then proceeded to pass by the others and walk down the stairs. Amethyst, who had Cy riding on top of her like a rodeo bull, must've not realized that Finn had gotten up. They collided on the stairs.

Finn flew off towards the gem's warp pad in the center of the home. The pad flashed with a dazzling array of colors and the next second it disappeared. Instead a pale white gem appeared; she wore a pair of pastel peach tights and a teal top with a low cut sweetheart neckline. A sheer tutu skirt was sewn to the sides of the tights. As if the outfit wasn't extra enough, above her sweetheart neckline was a transparent piece of fabric that wrapped around her, giving it the look of a ballet outfit. She caught the boy midair after a sudden gasp of exasperation, "Amethyst! What have I told you about horseplay in the house?!" Amethyst stopped in her tracks. and shapeshifted back to her normal form with Cy still clinging to her back like a baby in a papoose.

Rose floated down like a feather caught in a breeze. Everyone just stared for a moment at Finn and the white gem who just put him down. Suddenly, through the front door, a burly purple gem with a wild rainbow mane of hair, and a welder's long apron in magenta came bursting in to the silence screaming, "Happy Birthday, to the two cutest little rocks I've ever laid eyes on!" She pulled from behind her back a big burlap sack. She stopped and looked at everyone else in an intense stare off with one another, "Did I miss something?"

The white gem spoke first, "No, uh, Bismuth, hem-hem. Amethyst was horsing around with Cy, and they almost got Finn badly hurt."

The gem named Bismuth just scratched her head in confusion looking at Finn who was wandering into the bathroom, "Well, he seems fine to me, as long as no one got hurt. No harm, no foul."

"It is a big fowl Bismuth! It's so big of a fowl it's like that scary movie about the giant birds that Cy was watching yesterday!" The white gem was furious and babbling like an idiot.

Cy piped up from behind Amethyst, "Pearl, that was a documentary on the biggest albatross in the world," Rose began to laugh hysterically as Pearl started to blush in embarrassment.

Rose was wiping tears from her eyes as her obnoxious laughs started to decrease that she spoke and then laughed every other word, "Pearl, we've been on this planet the longest, and you don't know what an albatross is?" Pearl just looked down at her ballet slippers.

From outside they could hear the honking of Greg's van. Amethyst began to salivate at the thought of the waffles that awaited her. Finn emerged from the bathroom looking a little more doe-eyed thanks to his big glasses. He wasn't blind per say, but he couldn't quite make out more than blobs of color without his glasses.

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"Five waffle short stacks, a coffee refill, three side fruit cups, a side of whipped with chocolate sauce, and banana topping on the side." The waitress had just dropped their food off at the table, and even Bismuth was eating today, "Can I get you folks anything else?"

"Just a few extra syrups and some napkins, please!" Greg responded in his most charming voice with a wink and a finger gun, the waitress who was about his age blushed and skittered away, "Look at that kids, your old man has still got it!" Greg ran his fingers through his long hair.

Talking with her mouth open and full of waffles, "Dad, I don't want to look at that," Cy said calmly, "at least not while I'm eating!" Cy continued to chow down on her dry waffles until the waitress retuned with syrup for the table.

Finn looked at his breakfast, a short stack with fruit topping, with such longing for his bed. "What's on your mind Finn-aroni?" Greg looked at his son while he poured syrup on his own short stack, "Oh no, did any dairy get on that?"

Finn nodded his head no, "I'm just very sleepy still!"

Bismuth who was right next to him put her large ripped and toned arm around Finn, "You can take a nap in my lap if want?" Bismuth was so good with the kids, that sometimes Finn forgot that she wasn't his and Cy's mother. He acquiesced and lay his head down, "Excuse us!" She began as the waitress stopped by the table, "Can we get a to-go box for him?" The waitress, Norah, smiled warmly and nodded, "Thank you miss!"

Pearl wasn't quite one for eating and Rose wasn't quite either, but like Bismuth, Rose would eat food occasionally. She stole a banana off of Greg's stack, ate it quickly, but then belched like a fully grown person. It was loud enough to shake the diner, and some woman's glasses broke two tables over. "Excuse me," she had said in the most innocent tone as she dabbed her lips with a napkin.

"Oh Rose," Pearl put her head into her hands and looked down at the table in exasperation. Rose just smiled just as innocently as is nothing happened.

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Bismuth had finished her short stack first and started to box up Finn's food for him as the boy awoke from his slumber, "Good morning! Good timing, I was just about to tell you kids what's in that sack I brought in!" Cy was jumping out of the booth unable to contain herself, "Woah there short stuff! Where's the fire?"

"FIRE!" Pearl shot up from the booth as well, "Where's the fire!? We have to get the kid's away from it, right now, before their little human lungs are filled with curban manatoxi!"

Everyone at the table laughed. Greg then corrected Pearl, "I think you mean carbon minoxide, Pearl." The laughter only intensified as Pearl crossed her arms and walked out of the diner. Then the laughing stopped suddenly, "Don't worry about her, she won't get too far! Anyway… Bismuth continue, please!"

Bismuth cleared her voice, "That bag has presents for the both of you two!" Cy started to bounce up and down as Finn weakly did a few fist pumps, "There's a whole day of activities planned before we get to opening presents though, okay!?" She had the kid's undivided attention now, "First we gotta go to FunLand, and win some prizes!" Cy exploded out of he seat politely demanding that they go now.

"Well hang on there Cy!" Greg caught his daughter as she was midair, "We have to pay our bill first, we just can't leave yet. Jeez, usually your brother is the one who's all crazy!"

Finn looked at his dad still looking very groggy, "Don't worry dad, I'll get crazy soon!" Greg rolled his eyes as he chuckled and uttered his infamous _"Oh boy!" _under his breath.

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It didn't take too long, but Finn held true to his statement as now both kids were running around FunLand with Amethyst. There was a few other kids who were also running around with them including a neighborhood boy named Onion.

Cy's favorite game was ski ball with Amethyst who didn't care about cheating the game, much to the chagrin of Mr. Smiley. He was the flamboyantly giddy operator of FunLand, although secretly he detested his jobs, here and at the amusement park on the pier. However running the arcade was light work versus maintaining all the rides' machinery, vending at the concession stands, and manning the prize stands.

Mr. Smiley started to tell off Greg about his daughter's behavior when he noticed Bismuth slip on a puddle and fall, "Excuse me Mr. Universe! I have to prevent a lawsuit!" He started to go over to Bismuth but stopped short, "Just make sure you keep your kids and aliens out of trouble. Ma'am are you okay!" He rushed over to Bismuth's aid.

Finn and Rose really enjoyed the Dancy Schmancy Gyromancy Machine, and were currently destroying the tag-team high score. Despite her huge size too Rose was actually extremely agile and nimble on the dance pad. The screen had changed from the play screen to the placement screen the end of their run. To commemorate their new high score the two simply put "FnR" in the initial log. It was amongst good company: "SAD" had to be Sadie Miller, a local teen girl, while "NAN" had to be the town's persnickety residential elder, Nanafua Pizza, who's family ran Fish Stew Pizza.

Cy had already moved on to a claw machine, of which she was just a goddess at, snagging prizes that ranged from a PearPod, to a stuffed Potato which she named "Francis", to a mini drone that she had nothing but big plans for. Once again Mr. Smiley accused Cy of cheating, but this time she simply shut him up by winning two stuffed animals in one claw grab, "I told you Mr. Smiley, I'm just freakishly good at these arcade games!"

Mr. Smiley rubbed his bald head, "I'm sorry little miss Universe, I must be sleep deprived, carry on!" He cheerfully went on his way to the office when he noticed Onion lurking in the corner, "HEY YOU! ONION BOY! DO NOT TRY ANYTHING FUNNY WHILE I GET SOME TOKENS FROM MY OFFICE!"

Finn had moved on to shooting hoops with Bismuth, and the two were dominating the game as tickets kept spitting out of the machine. Mr. Smiley returned from the office with tokens and began to service the machines. In the meantime, Rose managed to catch sight of Onion lighting up an entire box of matches, then the boy scurrying behind the prize counter, but thinking there wasn't much to it just let the little human boy be.

"Hey Rose, everything cool?" The twins asked both running up to her with handfuls of prizes and tickets.

Rose pointed out a blaze that was just starting to grow behind the prize counter. It already started to catch on a few of the stuffed animals including a giant cartoony ant. "Hey kids! Ever seen a fire ant!" Amethyst joked inappropriately, but the kids were just unfazed by the comment, "Get it! _Fire Ant_, because it's… on fire…" Only she was laughing at her poor joke. "Okay!" She paused dramatically, "We should go."

"Well that didn't last too long…" Rose practically whispered as the inferno caused by the Onion boy started to engulf the one end of FunLand.

Pearl was a heaving mess telling the kids to do the _freeze in place, go limp and hit the ground, then rotate your stiff body back and forth_. Which the twins gathered was her own version of _stop, drop, and roll_. She scooped up the twins who were just casually walking out as if nothing happened. Then she bubbled the two of them. "Pearl, what are you doing?!" Was the last thing the kids had heard their father say before being teleported to the Crystal Temple.

Inside the temple the twins ended up in a familiar room that resembled the insides of one's body. The walls were all fleshy pink and red with long crystalline tubes that's ran from floor to ceiling. In the center of this room was a molten pit that reflected light off the hundreds of bubbled gems that floated in space much like the children. Both twins struggled to pop their respective bubbles, with Finn knocking off his glasses in the process, and both having only managed to do so after nearly tiring out from the thrashing. The two kid's fell about five feet to the ground, and the accompanying thuds were only more comical given the two landed on their faces, "Oh no!" Finn cried out in horror, "Where'd my glasses go? I can't see." The hybrid boy scuttled around the floor looking for his glasses.

Cy had found them already, and was holding them delicately. "There here brother, but… they are badly broken. I sorta landed on them," she sheepishly handed the mangled glasses back to Finn, "I'm sorry!"

Finn grabbed the shattered eyewear out of his sister's hands with a sigh, "It's okay, I just know dad won't be able to afford me new ones." He carefully walked over to the molten pit and just chucked the destroyed glasses into the lava.

"Hey just remember what dad always told us!" She beamed widely even though Finn couldn't see her smiling, "If every pork chop we're perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs!" Finn laughed at the silly phrase every time. He could always count on one of his dad's witty albeit stupid analogies to cheer him up, "Here, take my hand! I'll guide you out." Cy took her blinded brother's hand gingerly and the two wandered out of the Temple. The first thing that Cy had noticed when they'd walked back into the living space was, "THE PRESENTS ARE GONE!"

Finn gasped as the two let go of each other. He ran over to inspect closely, but in the wrong direction banging right into the sectional couch, "Oof! That's definitely not the presents," he wheezed having the wind knocked out of him.

Cy ran over to her poor brother, "Finn!" She sat him down on the couch, "You just chill out before you hurt yourself badly, okay?" It was at that moment Greg, Rose, and Pearl had all busted through the screen door, literally, as in, broke the door busted in.

"Cyrene! Phineas!" Greg ran over and scooped up his daughter for a big hug, he sat next to Finn who squirmed in shame, "What's wrong buddy?" He put his arm around his son then realized his glasses were missing, "And… what happened to your glasses?" Now Cy was squirming uncomfortably.

"When we freed ourselves from Pearl's bubbles, I landed on them," she paused, "and they broke. It was my fault."

Pearl rushed in, "Oh dear! I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I panicked!" Then she had a marvelous idea, "Rose why don't you try to heal his eyes!" She looked back at the ridiculously tall woman who stood in the doorway as Amethyst strode in.

Amethyst looked at the broken door that lay on the ground, "Somebody must've ordered food because that door has been dashed!" Everyone just looked at her, kind of confused. Well everyone except Cy who actually giggled at the stupid topical reference.

Rose made her way over to the couch, "I'm not sure if this will work Pearl, after all it is the first time I've used my tears on an organic being, but let's see what happens!" She looked down at Finn who looked straight up into her eyes, even though to him she was nothing to him, but a white and pink mass of colors. "It's not like I could make it worse," she joked. Two tears dripped from her eyes and landed into Finn's. Rose took a beat before asking him, "Did it work?"

Finn blinked, but his vision didn't change, "Nothing…"

"Well it was worth a shot," Greg reassured Pearl and Rose who seemed a bit disappointed at the outcome.

Finn didn't seem disheartened as he didn't expect Rose to just heal his eyes like that, "It's okay, Rose! You tried, and that's all I care about!" He hugged to blobby mass of white and pink. Then something strange happened, it was as if Finn was transported away from everyone at once, but it was weird. He was looking at Rose, she was hovering above the boardwalk, looking at something big and red in the sky. Then he was transported back to the present, "Woah! That was freaky…"

He looked at Rose, well the blob he assumed was Rose, and said something no one was expecting, "Rose, something just happened…" he turned to his dad, "didn't you say mom could see the future? I- I think I just had future vision."

Everyone gasped, Pearl was tearing up as was Rose who hugged the boy. Amethyst and Greg were the most shocked out of everyone it seemed, "Well, wait a minute, if you can see the future," he turned to his daughter, "can you sweetheart?"

All eyes were now on Cy, she felt a bit uncomfortable under all the looks, and she just turned to her dad and said, "You'll end up being a millionaire, dad!" No one spoke for a few minutes, and then everyone started laughing at the notion, "Well, I guess it doesn't work for me…" she quickly crossed her arms and put on a pouty face.

"It's okay princess," Greg consoled his daughter, "you can always work on that in the future! I'm sure with some practice you'll be as good at future vision as your mom!" Cy cuddled up against her dad feeling much better.

Finn then remembered the missing presents, "Oh my gosh! Cy the presents!" He looked over in the direction of his dad and sister.

The gems and Greg all asked in unison, "What about the presents?" They all glanced at each other, then realized that the sack of gifts was gone.

"How is that possible? The door was locked! No one could've gotten in?" Pearl was stunned.

At that moment Bismuth walked in, stepping on the door, but not saying a word about it, "Well Mr. Smiley finally got the fire under control, and as compensation he's giving us a free week of gaming," she held up a box that was tucked under her arm. It was full of tokens!

The kids had just about forgotten the presents. They ran over to her, "That's awesome! Oh Bismuth, where are the prizes and tickets we won today?" Bismuth's gem began to glow as all the prizes and tickets flushed out from the gemstone on her chest, "Thank you Bismuth!" The twins hugged the big purple gem.

Once again, Finn's future vision kicked in, this time it was blurry, but he could hear Bismuth was having a conversation with Cy and himself in the vision, "You two passed the test! You're now ready to be Crystal Gems!"

Finn came back to reality, "Bismuth, why are you testing us?" Everyone except Cy and Finn froze up, and shrugged awkwardly avoiding eye contact with one another.

Bismuth was probably the most floored out of everyone, "Did you just have a vision of the future?" Finn nodded to the purple blob who picked up the twins joyously and started to twirl around with them, "Haha, I knew this would work, and I can't believe you still doubted us Pearl!" Pearl began to blush.

The twins were extremely confused by the whole situation, "Bismuth?" They questioned in unison. She put the kid's down and much like the tickets and prizes the sack of presents had emerged from her glowing gem, "WHHHHAAAAATTTT IS GOING ON!?" The two protested.

Rose fielded this question, "Well, you see, we wanted to test your future vision skills by setting up this 'Case of the missing presents' scenario."

Amethyst then chimed in, "HEY… don't forget it was actually my idea!" She leaned on the wall looking smug and full of herself.

Finn was just floored, "I have SO MANY questions!" Finn gathered his thoughts, "But how did you guys sneak the presents out? The door was locked?"

Bismuth chuckled warmly wiping a single tear from her eye, "That part was tricky, because we did not anticipate that kid setting the arcade on fire." She went over to the couch and sat next to Greg as they watched the kids start to tear open their gifts, "When Finn and I finished our game of basketball, I took the opportunity amidst all the chaos, and rushed back here by shapeshifting into a… umm… oh dang it… Cy, sugar dumpling, what's that really fast cat called again?"

Cy paused from opening a terrarium, "Do you mean a cheetah?"

Bismuth winked and snapped her fingers, "That's the one! Anyway so I rushed back here, picked the lock and swiped the presents, but I heard you two coming out of the temple." She yawned, "So I locked the door and hid by making myself super small, and when I realized you couldn't see, Finn, and Cy was busy hugging Greg I made my way out the door."

The kids eyes lit up in excitement, "Wow, so you did all of that for us? That's amazing!" Cy began, "Thanks everyone!" She exclaimed as Finn chimed in with his sister.

"You two passed the test! You're now ready to be Crystal Gems!" Bismuth announced with a smile on her face. Finn's vision had come true! It was amazing to say the least, but now that he knew his visions were on the level he thought back to the vision with Rose.

Greg was the first to say, "Happy Birthday!" Followed by the gems who all piled around the kids to hug them tightly.

Finn then realized that he wasn't having any visions, "Huh, I thought when we all hugged I'd have another vision, but I guess it's just happens randomly."

Greg got up to hug his kids as well, first Finn, "I'm so proud of you, and don't worry about the glasses, kiddo! Those can be replaced." He tousled Finn's hair reassuringly, "And as for you my prize master!" He scooped up Cy onto his shoulders, "I wouldn't worry about your future vision, it'll come in time, but the fact that you took care of your brother while he's blinded, brings me such joy! I'm proud of you honey, and so would your mother!"

They all came in for a group hug, except Amethyst who just pulled a cake out from the fridge, "Yo! Enough lovey-dovey stuff, let's EAT SOME CAKE!"


	3. Hip To Be Square

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter is an experimental songfic chapter, I have it marked where the song will be played. For this chapter you'll need Hip to Be Square by Huey Lewis loaded up. If you guys enjoy this there will be more, if not I'll nix the idea, but I was thinking in lieu of original songs I'd have this be the musical element. Thanks again for the support, I'm sorry this is late, but here we go! Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 2: Hip to be Square**

Around noon was the usual time that Cy woke up amidst a soft pile of stuffed animals ranging from a cartoony croc to a realistic life-sized kangaroo. She quietly made her way to the bathroom and did her morning rituals, brush her teeth, use the facilities, and of course brush her long hair. Her hairbrush was shaped like a lizard, and her toothbrush had a cute little sheep on the bottom. She was always an animal lover from the day she was born. She could remember her first pet, a hermit crab named Tutu, and boy did she love that little crab. Tutu lived from her fifth birthday to her eleventh, making Tutu one of the oldest hermit crabs to live, and that was something she would always be proud of.

Sometimes she'd think that her mom would be proud too, that she loved something so much that it didn't want to die, and to boot, that love always made her feel good inside. Dad would always tell her that mom was made of love, and that love was what brought the twins to life. Well that and their gems.

Amethyst and Rose were warping in when Cy left the bathroom, and Amethyst was the first to notice Cy, "Good Afternoon sleepy! Rose and I are about to take naps, and I might take mine on the beach!" Amethyst yawned.

The giant woman Rose waddled up to the young gem-girl and knelt down in front of her, "So what are you doing today while your dad and your brother are out?"

"W-what?" She stuttered, "Where did dad and Finn go?" She practically whispered.

Rose booped her on the nose, "They went to the op-tom-eccentric?" She clearly was trying to say optometrist, but must've not been paying attention, "Finn's getting new glasses!"

The young girl smiled with glee as Amethyst strolled by about to leave through the front, "A-Amethyst, wait up, I'm going out too… I'll walk with you." She was quiet, almost to the point that Amethyst didn't hear her.

They two walked out the front door, which had been replaced by Bismuth. After the whole birthday fire fiasco, Bismuth created a door that was double wide, so they could fill the hole in the front. This was also smart as now Rose didn't have to squeeze herself in or shapeshift smaller, which she never did all, come to think of it, but Bismuth who was smaller would always shapeshift herself smaller. Hmm… odd.

"A-Amethyst," Cy began sheepishly, "Oh my gosh!" She stopped and pointed out a tiny hermit crab.

The purple gem looked at the small blue crab without a shell trying to find a new home. Cy's eye's grew wide with curiosity, "Maybe if it finds a shell and is still here after my nap, I'll bring it home for you!" Cy exploded in happiness, but it wasn't much louder than she had been most of today.

"Okay, kiddo, I'll catch ya later!" She faceplanted into the warm sand and started to snore loudly and obnoxiously. Cy was wondering if she truly was asleep or pretending.

This was probably a rare occurrence for Cy. Today she was actually taking a walk through Beach City rather than to the end of the beach, and around the bend a little ways, then back to the temple. It was her safety net, she knew the route like it was the back of her hand, but today she decided she'd stop that cycle, "A little hermit crab has to change her home every time she grows, so why not me too! Change is good." She mumbled to herself as she passed the Big Donut.

_Beach City wasn't scary_, she thought, _it's just the crippling anxiety of interacting with another human that makes me uncomfortable_. She was very silent around new people, awkwardly silent, it was agony, and a cruel one she couldn't hide from. Even at her and Finn's birthday two weeks ago she was so awkward and silent around the other kids whenever one was near.

She continued her trek down Thayer street, which she knew well since her father's carwash was located at the other end. Every so often she'd do an involuntary swing of her left forearm, most of the time, if something was in front of her balled fist, and she was anxious, the girl would hit whatever it was. Human, gem, solid matter, liquid, didn't matter she would hit it. She would try to control it so no one could see it, but it was ghostly in nature, her arm just would no longer respond to her brain. She probably would just die if she'd accidentally hit a stranger. Her anxiety was now at a full ten. If she saw someone coming her way, she'd cross the street, looking both ways of course, just to avoid people, but luckily no one was even walking down Thayer. Well there was one person, or gem rather, it was Pearl. It was so weird to see Pearl walking the streets of Beach City on her own, suspicious even. Pearl noticed her from the corner where 'It's A Wash… Carwash' stood proudly, and waved her over.

Cy started to skip towards Pearl, delighted to see someone she knew just walking Beach City too. She stopped dead center in front of Pearl, and beamed widely at the gem. "Hello Cyrene. What are you doing today?"

Cy dialed her smile back a little bit from a full-on gum grin to just a slight exposure of teeth, "I-I'm on a walk! Are you walking too? We could walk together… I mean… if you wanted to."

Pearl looked at her in a quizzical way, "I understand walking is an everyday construct that allows bipedal beings to get from 'point a to point b,' as I've heard Rose describe it, but are you suggesting that you're just walking for leisure?" Pearl was extremely dense in human ways, even though the other gems all understood a good deal of humanity, Pearl really never chose to. "Well, I could come with you for this walk- but I do have to keep vigilant. There's a gem monster loose somewhere in the city."

The young gem girl didn't understand half of what Pearl just said, but she was giddy nonetheless now that she had a walking buddy. She wrapped her hands around Pearl's left hand, and just stared up at her, in silent happiness. Pearl was a little flustered at first by this, since Cy never really showed much affection towards Pearl, well not since she was a baby.

The two started to go down Waterman street, which was a quaint little stretch of road with few houses, but it led directly towards the boardwalk. _The boardwalk…_Cy thought as her facial expression suddenly changed from bliss to pure terror… a knot formed in her stomach, and if Cy wasn't already holding onto Pearl she was now locked on. _A crowded area, so many people! Pearl, please do NOT walk towards the boardwalk when we hit the end of the street!_ Her panic wasn't really warranted however, since the boardwalk was technically another small block away from Waterman. You would have to make a right if you wanted to hit the boardwalk, and subsequently Funland Amusement park.

The thought of an Amusement Park should normally excite a child, but sadly not for Cy. That to her was her worst nightmare; so many people, within close proximity, with loud noises spouting off every second. It would create a terrible feeling within her tiny body. Her face would heat up, her vision would start to blur slightly, the noises would turn into this creepy hum, and all together her arms would lock to her side. Her stride became demure and compact; however, all she wanted to do was implode into herself, just to get away from everything.

Snapping back into reality, Cy had realized that Pearl already passed Chesapeake street, and the two were walking across the street from U-STOR the self-storage emporium. _Crisis avoided_, she sighed as those words came to mind.

Pearl suddenly stopped. They had hit the corner of Waterman and Chestnut road where they had a choice, continue down a dirt trail that lead them to the water tower, or turn down Chestnut, which did intersect with the Main street. Pearl closed her eyes and listened intently when suddenly this ugly looking creature had jumped from the nearby tree, and attacked Pearl without warning, "Oh no! It's so slimy, ugghh!" Pearl squealed as she wrestled with the gem monster. It resembled a bumpy accordion with arms and legs, but had the gait and jump skills of a frog, "Cyrene, run away! I'll take care of this!"

That was the moment everything set in. A knot the size of Delmarva formed in her stomach, she couldn't breathe, but she just ran down Chestnut with tears streaming from her eyes. She couldn't see anything, blinded by tears and fears. That was until suddenly, CRASH!

Cy had run smack right into another person, and now she was hyperventilating as she blinked, clearing the tears. She looked up through wet eyes.

A young blonde boy with buck teeth, just blinked back at Cyrene who was so filled with anxiety that her eyes were welling with tears, "Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I just-" he stood up and went to extend a hand to Cy who started to cry and scream as others looked on from houses across the street. The young boy retracted his hand and backed up a bit, he was starting to shed a tear as well, something that would forever stay in Cy's mind.

"W-Why are you crying?" She whispered through whimpers. Shocked that she spoke at all, the tears stopped too in her realization that she just talked to someone who she didn't know.

The boy wiped his eye and his golden waves of hair rustled in the breeze passing by, "I- I thought I might've…" he paused, "hurt you… really badly." He clutched his left elbow with his right hand and shifted uncomfortably away from Cy.

"N-No, you didn't," she practically whispered, "I'm just scared."

The boy didn't move, "Scared of what?" Then it slowly dawned on him, he was scary to her, or was, and now neither knew what to do.

Cy looked back behind her, wiped her eyes raw, and saw nothing. Well she saw the street and the corner Pearl was attacked on, but no Pearl in sight or that crazy beast that attacked her. Now she was just crumbling, "I just want to go home, I should've never left home today!"

The young boy, still confused and uneasy as well, shakily replied, "Where do you live? I can take you home…"

Cy was just shell-shocked now, so much was happening so quickly. All she could say was, "The Temple," in the clearest voice she could muster. The young man held true to his promise and walked poor Cy back home. The whole walk was best described as awkward, with nothing to say between them until they reached the front steps of the temple. "Thank you, I-I'm Cy by the way." With that she started to run inside, but before she could make it in, she had heard him say, "I'm Peedee, um… Peedee Fryman!"

She collapsed onto the floor of the living room, absolutely drained from the day thus far, and it wasn't even twelve forty-five, yet all she could think of was her bed and curling up under her mountain of stuffed animals. Going back to bed was appealing, it truly was, but it wasn't practical. Instead she took the time to play her favorite game, she ran upstairs quickly to look for it, and before long she'd figured out where she'd left her handheld TenPlusGo. On this she could spend days just getting sucked into the void of gaming: Cosmic Pepper Fiesta, Castles and Wyverns, Atamicekki, MyPetsPlus, CritterCatchGo, Knights of the Gilded Swansong, Director's Cut and Original. Just many worlds to get lost in as she calmed from her experience today.

Her final selection was Knight's of the Gilded Swansong, a fantasy MMORPG where she could be a wizard or a knight, but the outcome was the choice of do you protect the king? She usually protected him, but tweaked things slightly every time, "**YOU JUST OBTAINED THE BURRITO WAND!**" She'd made a new character and decided to make her witch a goof with her burrito wand, and she'd protect Princess Tortoise from the evil Plumba, rather than King Plumba.

Rose emerged from the temple, gliding across the floor right up to the warp pad. Noticing Cy huddled up on the couch with a game in her hands and dirty dishes on the coffee table, the gem leaped into the air and floated down next to her. Weightless, like paper in a breeze. Rose squatted down and noticed the game she was playing, "Oh, I just unlocked the talisman of corruption, and I think it'll be my main object of magic."

Cy just continued to play; she flat out wouldn't even acknowledge Rose's random obsession with the KotGS franchise. At that moment Pearl and Greg burst though the double doors both screaming, "CYRENE!" They looked over at Rose expecting an explanation, they didn't even notice Cy right away until she looked up, and spoke: "Oh hey Dad, hey Pearl."

Greg ran over to his daughter as Finn walked in with nice thin frame glasses that didn't cover half his face, "I told you she was fine, you gotta let me finish a vision, Dad!" He huffed making his way up to his room.

Shrugging off his son, Greg had turned his attention to Cyrene, "Are you okay kiddo? Your brother had a partial vision of you telling us you were in trouble, then I find Pearl outside screaming for you in a panic, but here you are right as rain." He was relieved, "You are okay, right? No broken bones or trauma, right?"

She didn't look up from her game, "This nice boy named Peedee Fryman helped me, but I'm okay." Finn came down from the loft with his little blue penny board in hand, "I was in trouble though, I ran from a monster."

Rose stood up quickly addressing Pearl in a grim tone, "Was it a corrupted gem?"

Pearl nodded. "What is a corrupted gem?" Finn asked Rose intrigued by the thought, "Am I a corrupted gem."

Rose looked at Finn returning to her usual soft and bubbly attitude, "Oh heavens no! Like that's so far from a corrupted gem too, but we'll tell you when you're older." Finn always hated that answer, but usually he got it from his father. On that note he ran out the door, and grinded down the front railing.

Greg sighed in relief that his baby girl was safe, "Well, we should go and thank Peedee, I know where he works." Cy looked up from her screen with wide eyes, "Yikes you didn't hear our arrival, yet for the boy you're all ears. Sheesh!"

* * *

Greg had eventually weened her gaze from the handheld console to convince her to save her progress. Took about a good twenty minutes, but in any case, they were out the door. Walking down the steps, _Wait what! Why are we outside again? _Her brain protested, as her left fist started up again, beyond her control. She could feel her anxiety working up again, yet all she could do as she walked was look out to sea. Amethyst was still napping at the shoreline, the waves were drawing in closer, so close, in fact, the white foam on the water almost lapped against her body. As much as she would've rather helped Amethyst from drowning inevitably, her legs just carried her against her will.

Greg could sense his daughter's utter terror beneath her beleaguered appearance, he could sympathize with her, "Hey- so Peedee's dad own's the Fry Shack along the beach, when we're done let's get some food, and try to calm down, alright sweetie?" He already knew she gathered the words and processed them, but he wasn't expecting a response as Cy was too engrossed by her anxiousness to say a word. They passed the Big Donut and the T-shirt Shop with no one else, but the two of them around. Passing Fish-Stew Pizza they stopped in front of Beach Citywalk Fries. It was a cute counter-style service restaurant, and there in the window was the boy Peedee.

He went from unenthusiastic food service worker to a genuine happiness that you rarely see in the business world, "Hello, Cyrene. Are you feeling okay?" He blushed feeling uncomfortable when Cy didn't say a word. She just stood there with a pained expression on her face.

Greg kneeled down to Cy's level, "Cyrene, Peedee just asked you a question. Don't just leave him hanging."

At that moment a voice came from inside the fry stand. It was deeper and manlier than Peedee and Greg's combined, "Peedee, we got guests?" The owner of the stand, Mr. Fryman came into view behind his son. He had pin straight blonde hair that looked so unamusingly like French-fries in a fry carrier. "Well, would you look what the cat dragged in, it can't be!" He wandered out of view. Cy was a stiff board of sheer distress, _Oh no! I have to meet someone…_ She sweat profusely as her left hand went off. Mr. Fryman came through the side door, a jovial fit giant compared to the average male height Greg Universe, "Universe! I haven't seen you since your boy broke my arm!" _Please, if anyone can hear my deepest thoughts, keep this man away from me! _Cy was almost hitting critical mass, which meant soon she'd stop breathing and pass out.

Then she heard it, the theme song for Knights of the Gilded Swan song, "Peedee, how many times have I told you to turn off your phone during work hours?" Cy approached Peedee at the window. Her anxiety faded tremendously from hearing that familiar song.

"I-I like Knights of the Gilded Swansong, too." Cy smiled mildly at Peedee. No one spoke, Greg especially. "Dad, can Peedee come over to play video games sometimes?" Cy looked back at her speechless father.

Mr. Fryman was the first to say anything, "Greg, you never told me you had a daughter, too! Hang on!" He was making a huge deal out of this, weird, and Peedee was extremely embarrassed. "HEY RONALDO! COME WATCH THE COUNTER, YOUR BROTHER AND HIS GIRLFRIEND ARE GONNA HANG OUT!" They all heard a loud groan from upstairs.

_Did he just say I was his girlfriend?_ That was the straw that broke her. Her vision started to fade away, she swayed on the spot, then felt herself starting to tilt as her vision completely darkened, and the last thing she heard was her dad screaming, "CYRENE!"

* * *

Back at home Finn was admiring his glasses in the glass reflection of the new doors. Behind him he had heard, "Don't worry about it Peedee! Hey thanks again for being so nice to my girl. She doesn't usually take to people, so this is all a lot for her." It was his dad. He turned around and seen Cy in his arms passed out.

He jumped from the top steps and landed nicely in front of Greg, Peedee, and the unconscious Cy, "Woah! Dad?" He noticed Peedee, "Is that- you're the frybo right?" Peedee didn't quite like being referred to frybo, it was apparent from the look on his face, "Sorry, Peedee, yeah?" Peedee nodded, as Cy began to stir in Greg's arms.

Cy came too. She wasn't a fan of blacking out from panic attacks, in fact she started feeling extremely self-conscious and anxious right from the moment her eyes opened, but her feelings stifled as she realized, _I'm home._

* * *

The afternoon was very different than any other in Cy's entire life, finally she had a friend, and one who didn't care about her anxieties. One who stuck with her when she started to get bad, one who shared so many interests with her, and most importantly one who the gems and her brother warmed up to quickly.

"I've like never seen her this happy!" Greg was misty-eyed while holding his mug of coffee aloft. Rose was drinking from a mug as well patting the proud parent on his back.

Pearl sat with them, but was not drinking coffee. In fact, she was the only gem who didn't partake in consumption of any kind, "Well we'd all be happy if we started looking for this elusive gem monster."

The hulking gem Bismuth, whilst drinking coffee, clapped Pearl on the back, "Lighten up, Pearl! We got time to find all the corrupted gems, but right now we should all be here for Cy! She's finally beginning to break her shell open, that's a big moment, so savor it!" Pearl became all flushed.

Up on the loft Cy and Peedee were playing Castles and Wyverns, which was the pinnacle of nerdiness. Cy was a mage cleric named Anu, and Peedee was Sib, the thief. They were currently attempting a raid for supplies, "Punch that guy with your magic fist!" Peedee instructed Cy, "**CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE SECRET WYVERN SCROLLS!**" Cy was in awe, she was always trying to unlock the secret Wyvern Scrolls, but she never knew how too nor did she want to cheat by looking it up.

(Start Playing song; start reading at 00:14 mark)

The rest of the afternoon and midday played out like a dream for Cy, never did she think she'd find a friend with so much in common with her. These nerdy video games she liked; he also enjoyed the same niche genre of games she played. They were laughing at the screen, while a big blob of yellow was vomiting up smaller blobs, and the sight had inspired Cy so much that she imitated the blob by performing an illusion that looked like she backed up one of her small dolls from a sideways glance.

Lunch was extremely unprecedented as Bismuth had cooked, which was such a strange change up from Pearl of Rose whipping up something quick. Bismuth was gracefully putting on a show for the kids essentially. It was magic, like watching a dancer on a ballroom floor, as Bismuth added the ingredients to a mixing bowl with such finesse and swagger, then she'd glide over to the stove to flip the potato pancakes, but then all in the same motion return to stir as she caught the last airborne cake. The kids voraciously tore into the meal, which aside from the potato pancakes was a chipped beef in a crème sauce on grilled toast.

Next, they had unearthed a glass chess set from Cy's closet which was in surprisingly good condition. Cy always prided herself on being a skilled chess player for her age, yet somehow Peedee was much better and had only played once before. Before the gem-girl knew it Peedee took out her queen and now her king was in check. She stared in amazement as Peedee beamed back at her with that gleam in his eye, which meant he was pleasantly surprised, and usually she'd get mad at her brother if he had won on a fluke. Still she couldn't help but cheer Peedee on.

A nature documentary on the Sumectric Tiger was on the agenda next. Now Cy was in her element giving Peedee really niche factoids about the majestic beasts as they graced the television, Peedee was blown away by the amount of knowledge she had on the crazy big cats, and partially through one explanation Peedee roared like a tiger. The sound was so hilariously imperfect they couldn't help but roll on the floor in laughter.

After the documentary was over, the kids ran outside to play on the beach, and true to form Amethyst was still faceplanted on the beach. Now her hair was being guided into the ocean by the lapping waves, and this time Cy just ignored it as the kids just built a moat around her. Then jumped and cartwheeled along the sand migrating around towards the city, but instead of going into the city Cy raced Peedee up the tall seaside hill which the temple was embedded into on the other side. They reached to top and tagged the lighthouse at the same time. They jumped high into the air and gave each other a blistering high-five that stung their small hands for a moment, but they shook it off instantly.

(Let song play out til 2:59; pause)

The kids where now gleefully rolling down the grassy hill without a care in the world. Peedee stood up first, matted the grass off his clothes, then he gawked upward in fear. "That was great, what next Pee-" she stood up but then started to waved her hand in front of the boy, "hello, Earth to Peedee? What are you looking at?" She turned her gaze to match Peedee's, she looked just in time too. The gem monster was hurdling towards them at a lightspeed pace, "Look out!" Cy piped up as loudly as she could, pushing her new friend out of harm's way. They hit the ground hard, but it wasn't the time to acknowledge bruises or wounds. The gem monster slammed into the Earth next to them; it began to reach out for them, but thinking quickly Cy flipped on top of Peedee. "Take my wrists and my ankles," he did, "now arch your back! Do it!" Peedee, without hesitation, listened to a tee, and now the two were a wheel rolling down the rest of the hill. They hit the bottom and broke apart flying into a nearby bush,

Cy got up first with a groan and lazily wheezed out, "Peedee, I'm sorry about this, but we need to get the gems." Peedee got up rubbing his throbbing head. He had a welt the size of a mandarin orange, smack dab in the middle of his forehead, "This might be the concussion talking, but why are you sorry! Today was amazing!" He stood up quickly and took her hands into his, "Can we always do cool stuff like this!" He had that twinkle in his eyes, and immediately Cy went red, then something wonderful happened. A bright light engulfed the two.

Suddenly a new being was in view, it stood about the height of Bismuth, had a slender figure with a split hairdo. One side was bright blonde and black dreadlocks in a side ponytail. The other half was completely powder blue. Everything was so strange and new, this feeling right now, was indescribable. Part of Cy, part of Peedee. This new body! Stronger. Somehow gentler. "Peedee? Cy?" The new being spoke with a feminine lisp, "Cy, what just happened?!" the being was in shock putting its hands onto his head, "I-I think we fused, don't worry! Everything is going to be fine!" The being then got an inquisitive look on its face, "Peedee you're more creative than Cy. What's our name?" The gem monster rushed the newly fused hybrid as the fusion summoned a long elbow-length dragon-scale gauntlet, "Call me-" the fusion punched the gem monster right in the sweet spot as it poofed, "Cyrfry!" As suddenly the fusion came to life, it fell apart with both kids wide-eyed, and without anything to say. Cy rushed over to the gem, bubbling it with a sigh. She then collapsed next to Peedee in the grass, both still bruised and battered from the ambush, but at least they were alive. They were both breathing heavily. The excitement and exhaustion wiped them out so much that they both just stayed there and rested along the hillside for a whole hour, not talking.

The sky was now getting much darker, which meant it was getting late, so Peedee, got up with a groan and said, "Let's hang out again soon Cy I had fun! Even if I might have a concussed head and a lot of bruises and cuts; this day was amazing!" Peedee said his goodbye to Cy, while she still laid there. It was shocking that Peedee wanted to hang out again given all the ridiculous events within the last hour.

She finally got herself up after another twenty minutes of heavy breathing. Slowly she'd managed to slump back to the temple as the sky grew darker. She could no longer she Amethyst at the shoreline, but she could faintly make out her body print behind the tiny moat in the moon's light. The stairs never had been so unforgivingly cruel to her body as she hiked up each of them slowly. Cy was grunting as her whole body ached, and lifting her foot up to another step was more pain. When she got inside, she saw her dad and Finn were on the couch passed out in a food coma. No gems in sight either.

She quietly made her nightly rounds before bed, and later as she plopped down in her bed, she thought to herself: _Who knew that fusion would be so exhausting_... She turned her head, but something had caught her eye before she closed them. So, she peeled her head up from the mass of stuffed animals, and noticed something on her dresser. She looked up and there was the hermit crab from earlier, with a fancy new red shell. In a cute little terrarium, "You're like a little fusion yourself, aren't you!" The hermit crab was gorgeous, and all she could say before she passed out was, "I'll call you Garnet", after her late mother.


	4. Rose's Lion

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

* * *

**Author's Note: This chapter took a really long time to come together. So much has happened lately, but I'm prospecting several new chapters in the next two months in Quarantine! One reason it took a while to come together was trying to gauge Rose in this chapter, it just didn't seem right to end it off any other way than I did! Please enjoy, be safe, and thanks for reading!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Rose's Lion**

It was a quiet rainy Thursday morning and inside the temple: Amethyst was doing yoga with Cy who was finding the new exercise quite a boost for her mental health, while the other gems and Finn watched the usual Thursday morning cartoon line-up on Delmar 1, and that line-up included _Picker Knights_. The show was an anime, which meant that the stylization of characters and background had more sharp, edgy, or semi-realistic lines. It was more story driven too, unlike a wavy warm cartoon with more rounded shapes, and characters who have unrealistic problems that get miraculously fast results. Finn, Pearl, Rose, and Bismuth also really identified with the four main characters in such a way that really brought them closer.

"That was a bonkers episode gang!" Finn exploded from the couch, the nerd in him was about to come forth, and it was unstoppable like a hurricane. "I can't believe Jasmine ate that whole golem?! Like what, tiny Jasmine!"

Pearl slyly added, "The pink Golem was quite remarkable too! Her strength, her gentility, HER POWER! Was most impressive!"

Rose ascended off the couch, "Okay, now that the episode is over… lets jump right into today's discussion! It stems off last week's discussion of fan-made characters that, once again thank you Finn for enlightening us on, today we should draw out our characters!" Everyone, except Amethyst and Cy, had jumped up from their seat and started to cheer and clap.

Amethyst couldn't help but chuckle, "These dorks, am I right Cy?" she whispered to Cy who was mid-breath heading into a downward facing dog position.

Cy wobbled for a second, giggling a bit, "Amethyst stop, that's not nice! Also, I can't laugh or I'll fall!" She felt herself rocking forward and backwards a bit on her hands and feet. She tried to keep herself still, in the moment with her breath.

Rose started talking again, which didn't help Cy's focus, "I actually went ahead and started designing my character last night, let me get my drafts!" She smiled and flew off into the temple to look for her designs.

The front doors burst open with a resounding thunderclap! Then within an instant, three people threw themselves inside. All now laying on the floor, all breathing heavily, and all the gems and the kids spooked. Cy lost her concentration and collapsed out of her downward dog, "Ow… what was that?"

Finn got up to address the three intruders whom he flipped over one at a time. Nanafua Pizza, the short matriarch of the Pizza family who owned Fish Stew Pizza on the boards, next to her was her son Kofi, a middle-aged man with a tall and lanky physique who was the restaurant's manager, and finally Kofi's daughter Kiki, an athletic teenager who was beautiful as much as she was a hard-worker for her father.

"I don't remember anyone ordering Pizza…" Bismuth awkwardly chimed in as she closed the doors to keep the elements outside. She scooped up Kiki and Kofi with ease and set them on the couch to catch their breath. At that moment Rose had reentered the living area looking at the unfolding scene with wide eyes and blatant confusion.

"Honestly Bismuth! I just steamed the fabric, and now these humans are going to get it all wet and musty." Pearl huffed as Finn passed her escorting Nanafua to the end of the couch with great care, "Nanafua, what happened?" He asked his older friend concerned she could be hurt or Kofi or Kiki could be, or any combination of the three.

Nanafua pulled her hood down, not opening her eyes, "I think we must be crazy…" She looked back at her son and granddaughter, "But I swear on my life we just were chased down by… a lion." Thunder boomed outside once she uttered the word 'lion'.

Cy popped up and ran over to her brother, "We've got to do something! That lion could get hurt or hurt someone badly!" She ran over to the closet, threw off her slippers and hiked galoshes up her little legs, and then threw on a rain poncho that resembled a naked mole rat.

Pearl quickly grabbed Cy by the hood of her poncho before she could gallop out the door, "Hold on! You and your brother are staying put."

Cy's face contorted into a sadness, so deep that she was flooded with tears already. Pearl picked up Cy in a fireman style then escorted the tiny girl to be seated on a stool, "I'm certain I know what's happening here." She turned to Rose who was looking off into the distance with a sorrowful expression, "Rose- Rose, let's go!" She grabbed the dazed gem and the two took off into the stormy abyss outside.

Cy kicked her galoshes off with a huff and in a tiny voice she eked out, "It's not fair- I wanted to pet the lion…" Amethyst wandered over to the bemoaning Cy and shapeshifted into a lion for her, "Thank Amethyst, but it's not the same…"

Finn shook his head returning his attention back to Nanafua, "Nanafua, why don't you three get some rest. Bismuth would you mind putting them upstairs?"

Bismuth gave him a strange look then chuckled, "No problem," once again she scooped up Kofi and Kiki with ease launching them onto Finn's bed.

"I had hoped you would've carried them! Not throw them like a football!" He ran upstairs to check on the Pizza's as Bismuth approached Nanafua.

She put up a small hand to Bismuth not opening her eyes, "I'm okay here, thank you," she opened her eyes and looked at the hulking purple gem with the wild mane, "Could I trouble you for a cup of tea, please?" Bismuth seemed perplexed by the request as she rarely ate or drank.

Bismuth scratched her head and looked back at Cy, "Hey baby girl, could you get her a tea, also what's tea?"

"Oh my! You've never had tea? Oh ho-ho… It's such a warm and relaxing beverage, especially on days like this," Nanafua gestured towards the storm raging outside.

Bismuth was still perplexed, but a look of curiosity took over. "Huh, warm and relaxing, hey make me a tea too please baby girl."

Cy stopped petting the purple lion Amethyst with a strained look on his tiny face, "Okay, let me get the kettle out." She hopped down from the stool and trudged behind the counter. She was just able to reach the kettle on the backend of the stove, and after a moment of futzing about she started collecting water in the kettle.

* * *

About an hour had passed by without a word from anyone. The Pizzas' were still cooling off from their close encounter, Bismuth was now lounging with Nanafua on the couch, and somehow both had acquired facial masks and cucumber slices on their faces. "Oh yes, this is nice!" The short feisty old woman sighed with delight.

Amethyst, Cy, and Finn had constructed a human gem pyramid by having Cy stand on Finn and Amethyst. Suddenly the purple gem shape-shifted into a blobby bean bag chair, causing the twins to collapse into the squishy mass of gem. They all began to roar with laughter as the doors flung open. Pearl came in first, dripping in rainwater; a look of utter displeasure graced her face, "Honestly, these humans need to figure out what to do about this… rain." Her gem began to glow as she plucked a towel from within herself. Patting herself off she calls outside to Rose, "Rose, get inside your letting the water in!" The massive pink haired gem came in tow also soaking wet, yet instead of asking Pearl for her towel or getting one for herself she just shook wildly like a dog, "Uggh- Rose please, stop that!"

Rose finished her shake off with a flip of her hair, "Oh Pearl, your soaked!" She giggled, flicking Pearl on her wet nose.

"Rose, be serious!" Once again Pearl started to dry herself off with her towel. Bismuth approached her friends with a friendly smile.

Cy got off Amethyst and without hesitation she ran up to her three guardian gems, "Did you two find the lion? Did ya, did ya!"

Rose knelt down to get closer to Cy's eye level and with the most innocent voice she simply said, "Nope!" She then got up and walked away without another word to retrieve her fanart, which still littered the floor by the warp pad.

Pearl hid her towel back inside her gem with a slight shudder, "What Rose means to say is, no," she takes a breath trying to calm herself, "but we did find tracks in the mud leading out of town!" Pearl looked longingly at Bismuth, "We are going to break up into single teams tomorrow, and have another look around the city."

Bismuth grinned back at Pearl with a confident, "That sounds like a plan to me!" She patted Pearl on the back jokingly, "Besides I think you've had enough water today, Pearl." She laughed, fluttering her eyelids for a moment, while Pearl nervously blushed.

* * *

The following day turned out to be much nicer than the previous; a gregarious gale blew through the city as Cy and Finn escorted the less shaken Pizza family back to their home. Nanafua and Finn where discussing the process of taking the perfect selfie, "It is all about the steadiness of one's hand," She the stepped aside quickly and demonstrated the perfect steady hand selfie minus a phone, "Jenny taught me that one."

Finn was bemused at Nanafua's audacious impression, "That makes sense, all your Pictogram account photos- there is nothing on there that is below a perfect ten." Nanafua and Finn started to laugh like hyenas. A few feet behind them Kofi was thanking Cy for the millionth time for allowing his family to, as he put it, 'Avoid an imminent demise by a beast'.

Cy just felt the more uncomfortable the more she had to say thank you, and it was weird but she could sense Kofi was also feeling awkward. What else was there for Cy to say? She just felt herself slowly retreating into herself when Kofi opened his mouth again, but Kiki spoke up before he could say a word, "Dad, that's enough! Cy and her whole family know you're grateful for their hospitality, so stop acting like a broken record and just chill, dang!" Cy glanced at Kiki with a face of absolute relief, and Kiki just smiled back her bright charming grin.

They just reached Fish Stew Pizza, residence of one Nanafua Pizza and her family, but it was also their family business as a pizzeria. Like a swift runner, Kiki's twin Jenny busted through the front door with order slips covering almost every single inch of her, "WHERE THE HECK WHERE YOU GUYS! I woke up and the phone started ringing and ringing and finally I answered it, but it was nonstop! I was lucky to flag down Sour Cream and his brother Onion to help with deliveries and making pizzas."

"Wait what job did you give Onion!?" Cy spat out worried her on-and-off-again, possibly psychopathic friend was the one operating a pizza oven.

Jenny ushered her family inside while assuring Cy, "No he's doing deliveries, also apparently DJ skills translate really well into making pizza pie dough, no joke! Dad we should hire him!" She yelled after Kofi was already inside, "Huh, well now that that's pretty much over, well at least for me," she shook herself free of all the order slips, "I can go shopping!" The teen delightfully chirped.

Cy and Finn just stared in awe at her then looked down at the many slips littering the boardwalk, "Don't you need these for orders?!" Cy inquired.

Jenny responded without looking back, "NOPE! They all done!" And with that Jenny disappeared around the corner. Both twins just shrugged off the whole display they just witnessed, and took the order slips to be recycled without a second thought.

Cy and Finn kept waking the boards without anywhere in mind, "What do you want to do Cy? Pearl only asked us to take the Pizza's home, and now we got the afternoon to ourselves! Which is awesome because you don't really come outside."

Cy struck a heavy glare at her brother, "Thanks…" She shook her head holding back a comment, "Wanna go find Onion? Tell him he's done working for the day? Besides he owes me back my copy of Cosmic Pepper Fiesta." Finn shrugged indifferent to the whole thing. Onion wasn't necessarily his cup of tea, but he didn't mind hanging out with him. Mostly because he didn't talk.

The twins began their search for Onion. It would probably take a while since Onion was out of season so to speak. Sometime after their birthday Onion changed a bit, he seemed less destructive, and more helpful or maybe Cy was getting her hopes up and he was actually still the same Onion.

Passing by the Mayor's Office they waved fondly to the mayor who didn't notice them because he was busy waxing his head. No for real, he was waxing the foam head carbon copy that rested on his 'pimped out mail truck', as Finn would refer to it, jokingly of course. It was so unsightly and disturbing it just hit uncanny valley territory. They'd passed by not even for a second when they heard the mayor scream out in terror, "WILD ANIMAL! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" The few citizens that were around, including the twins all stared in amazement at the Pink Lion perched on top of the mayor's head, and then the fear and terror set in as other civilians started to scream and run away.

This was nuts, the gems had told them the lion was definitely not in town anymore, how did it get here? How did it slip through the gems grasp? Also why was it so unsightly pink? All these questions would have to wait as the lion roared ferociously, pouncing from the mayor's truck only a few feet from the twins. Finn backed up a bit nervously, "Cy back away slowly now!"

It was too late however. For the lion, not Cy, as the incorrigible animal lover practically tackled the beast outrageously crying out in triumph, "KITTY!" The tiny girl was wrestling with the lion much to his brother's horror.

Out from behind the Mayor's office the gems had sallied into combat, probably hearing the commotion or seeing fleeing humans, but whatever the case was they were here now… well all minus Rose. Pearl was the first to address Finn, "Stand back!" She then looked over her shoulder at the boy, "Where is your sister?" Finn just pointed in shock and horror as the gems all gasped and Pearl let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The lion had just pawed at Cy's face making the gems and Finn sweat immensely. Then a miracle happened, "Bad kitty!" She then flipped the pink lion over like a flapjack and pinned it down with her tiny body. It attempted to bite her, but she slapped the big cat like it was nothing. Everyone waited with baited breath then all of a sudden, the lion started to whimper and tear up, "Aww, I'm sorry kitty, but you got too rough." She got of the behemoth animal and it simply rolled over then laid in front of her showing subservience to the tiny girl. She kissed the lion on its coarse furry cheek, "Good boy!"

No one was more confused than Bismuth and Amethyst, "What the heck, just happened?!" The smaller of the two purple gems interjected with her eyes bugging out in shock and surprise. Bismuth, not one to get tongue tied, was surprisingly speechless lowering her hands, and turning them back from axe blades. Pearl ran up to the little girl and started to scold her when the lion roared menacingly at her.

Cy stroked the lion's side lovingly, "It's okay boy, she's like my mom!" The beast had stopped, but looked awfully hard at Pearl for a moment, "Pearl," the little girl began, "I got this! Calm down!"

Pearl was absolutely dumbfounded, but didn't want to argue at the risk of being poofed by the lion. Rose had now hovered into view from above, she was clapping vigorously as she made her descent onto the street below, "Rose, were where you this whole time?"

The giant of a woman ignored her fellow gem and glided over towards the pink lion and the calm and collected Cy whom was being licked affectionately on the face. "Wow, Cy… you're so amazing with animals." Upon hearing her voice, the lion stopped licking Cy's face, got up and strutted over to Rose, "And you mister! How are you?" She hugged the lion, and now everyone was confused. However, it was Pearl's turn to break the silence.

Pearl was indefinitely mad, no doubt, you could hear it in her tone, "Rose? How do you know that lion?" She started to glare at Rose suspiciously.

Rose giggled lightly, "Oh Pearl, this lion belongs to me, I guess you could say."

Pearl exploded. The white gem never was pushed this far, at least to the twins' knowledge. Now they'd heard Pearl get loud and panicky, but she was just going ballistic. "WHAT-WHAT-WHAT-WHAT-WHAAAAATTT?!" She started to tear up a bit, "You don't own a lion! You would've told me that, YOU tell ME everything!" Now she started to get quiet and despondent, "What else have you been hiding from me?" The other gems gasped clearly taken aback by Pearl's reaction. She was now balling her eyes, a not so pretty sight as Pearl could make crying look beautiful, but this was just ugly and chaotic crying. Pearl quickly ran from the others back towards the temple.

"Pearl wait!" Cy piped up as she hopped onto lion's back, looking like a doll on top of the pink beast, "Come on, Lion!" But he didn't move, he actually yawned and fell to the ground in a deep sleep, "Liiiiiioooon! We gotta go!"

Rose then took Cy from her mount and held her aloft under her arm, "Baby, I think we should give Pearl some time." She looked back at the others a bit sorrowful. Pearl had never screamed like that at anyone before, and both twins couldn't help but feel that it really hit Rose badly.

* * *

When they all returned to the temple there was no sign of Pearl. Amethyst had even checked her room just to make sure, but not a trace of her was to be found. Finn was very melancholy having seen Pearl like that, he didn't know why or could even begin to imagine why he was feeling so emotional. He decided to go to bed early- very early at that -Bismuth even tucked him in once seeing his face, and he hoped the others hadn't noticed. By this time Rose was off in her room somewhere, he imagined she was crying, but for some reason he just couldn't empathize with her despite being chewed out by Pearl. His last thought before being taken by sleep was Pearl smiling with tears in her eyes.

* * *

About an hour and one vegan Chinese dinner for Cy, Bismuth, and Amethyst later they all started talking about the pink lion or as it was being dubbed 'Rose's Lion. The animal in question was sprawled out on the couch deep in another nap, "Boy, this guy can sleep, huh?"

Amethyst looked very uncomfortable, glancing over at the lion every now and then. "So is Rose keeping that thing here?" She looked over towards the warp pad hoping for Pearl, and then the temple's magical door hoping for Rose.

Cy was picking her teeth with a toothpick, "Of course she's keeping it here…" her voice got very deep and demonic for a moment, "I shall love him, pet him, and we shall conquer my enemies together."

Both gems just stared at the little girl. "Well I don't know about all that, but… maybe we should build him a little house so he is not sleeping on the couch anymore," Bismuth broke the tension, unsure of that strange outburst.

"Dude, you been watching Blood Rain Chronicles again?" Amethyst gave her a very jagged and icy stare, but Cy just sat there innocently. The smaller purple gem sighed, "I guess where building a house for… that…" The three all started to make their way outside into the twilight, but Amethyst stopped Cy at the door. "No more Blood Rain Chronicles without me, sis, we started watching that together."

* * *

Sometime around nine at night Finn was awoken by the sound of a jackhammer smashing- no, destroying some kind of rock outside, he tried to cover his ears with his pillow, and go back to bed but it was futile. The noise was ingrained in his head at this point, and wouldn't cease, "Mmmmhhhhmmm?" He got up, went down to the bathroom, splashed some water on his face, and hoped the cool water might relax him enough to go back to bed. He then thought he was possibly dreaming, "That couldn't be?" There was a noise outside the bathroom, it sounded like the warp pad, but who would be going at this time of night? Or was someone coming back?

Finn burst out of the bathroom and he caught Pearl about to warp away again. However, before she could he tackled her to the warp pad, and the pad had lit up; then whisked them away through the cosmos. It was beautiful, like a galaxy's edge, or a bowl full of Golden Banana ice cream. That visage was shortly replaced by a new destination, in the darkness Finn could see bushes with sweet, ripe, and juicy looking strawberries glinting in the moon's rays. They weren't the only things gleaming in the moonlight. Once his eyes adjusted, he realized there was swords and armor way to big for a human, catching the moonlight, and giving the place a very ominous vibe, "Wow, cool! What is all this, Pearl?" Pearl looked back now comprehending that Finn had tackled her from behind. Instead of answering him she grew terribly wide-eyed again, and just ran from him. Finn could feel Pearl's sadness like an unbelievable tidal wave of gloom.

Pearl looked back with tears streaming, "I just want to be left alone!" With that short outburst she was off sprinting again. Finn took chase trying to keep her in sight, but she was exceptionally quick. For a moment he thought he'd lost her when he came to a cliff's edge, that is until he saw it, a bunch of floating chunks of Earth suspended above a large chasm, much like tiny floating islands, and immediately he'd seen Pearl hopping from island to island. He started to make chase to the miserable gem whose tears stained the night air as she bounded away.

Finally, he caught up to her, she was quite a way out from where he stood on his tiny island, her landform was much bigger, but certainly farther. He took a nice long deep inhale then ran towards the edge as quickly as he could, and the using the very edge catapulted himself towards the largest of the flying terraforms. His distance didn't quite match up to how far he needed to go, and before he knew it, he was falling down the into the darken abyss of the chasm. He screamed out, "Pearl, help me! I'm falling!" He closed his eyes awaiting certain death, but then Pearl swooped in at the last second to cushion his fall.

The inky blackness of the chasm was actually a humongous crater that most likely went on for miles and miles. Finn had never seen anything like it before in real life or online, its defied logic in its size and depth, and as if that wasn't strange enough his normally warm body felt like it was on fire. He finally got to his feet, rolled up his sleeves, and felt a small sweat bead form on his forehead. He looked on ahead. There was Pearl sitting between two smoking cracks in the Earth's mantle, and she had her head buried between her knees. He sat down directly behind her, and she must've heard him as she started speaking:

"Sometimes I wish your mother was here, I never had to wonder about the future when she was around, and like you she was always the one chasing after me. Do you remember this place, Finny? Can you see her memories? Your mother watched it all unfold… she told me once it was the most devastating and pathetic thing she'd ever seen. It was five-thousand years ago-" she then produced a hologram about ten feet behind her. It was his mother, and for a second, he tensed up. She then produced another two holograms one of Rose and one of a strange looking gem unknown to Finn, "I wanted us to be together, I thought if I laid my life on the line for her, maybe she'd love me. Like how I loved her…" the hologram of the strange gem lunged at the hologram of Rose only to be intercepted by Pearl. "Except I was a fool, I laid down my life to protect her own, poofed again and again! Coming back mere seconds later… deformed… undesirable… unlovable."

Finn looked back at the hologram of his mother who was looking on at the frightful scene with her visor off. He'd only every seen pictures of his mother with her visor, so to see her eyes… her tears… her anguish… her disgust was all too much. Then Pearl spoke for the disembodied Rose, "My Pearl, my trusted right hand…" The holo-Rose slays the foreign gem while holo-Garnet comes up to where Pearl was pick up something. Pearl then created a replica of her gem lying on the ground. It was then Finn realized she was blindly in love with Rose who didn't feel the same, and probably still doesn't. A part of him ached for Pearl, "Everything I ever did was for her, but what was it for I thought I knew everything about her." She started to cry, "I devoted myself to her and she can't even tell me she has a pet lion," she took a deep breath in, then tears had stopped flowing, but still glistened in her eyes. "I wonder if your mom can see me though your eyes, I wonder if she'd be disappointed in me."

This took Finn aback, he had no idea that Rose had put Pearl through all of that torture, but it seemed his mother did. What would she do right now? Oh, what he would give to have a vision of what could make Pearl happy right now. Strangely he just let his inner voice talk for him, "I think she'd be proud of you for talking about your feelings." He got in front of her and just started to hug her, and all they could do was cry together.

* * *

The two warped back into the temple, holding each other's hand, looking at each other with tired smiles, and true to what he'd seen earlier before his nap: Pearl smiling with tears in her eyes.

Everyone except Rose was present as the two made their return, "Finn?! Pearl? You… two… doing alright?" There was an intense silence that followed that drawn out question.

Pearl sniffled a little before she wiped her eyes dry, "Yes. I think we will be," Finn answered for Pearl.

Amethyst and Cy looked at each other gleefully, both happy to see Pearl back and much more cheerful than earlier. "Oh! Finn and Pearl, come see! We built a house for Rose's lion!" Finn looked up at Pearl wanting to gauge her reaction first.

She rubbed her eyes again, "Let's go see their hard work!" Finn beamed like a madman, elated to hear Pearl's normal tone again.

* * *

Outside, about five meters away from the stairs, there was what appeared to be a small shack of some kind. It was painted a pinkish purple with butterflies and turtles and rabbits and dolphins all crudely painted on the wall facing them. They moved around to the front where there was a wide rampway leading into the enclosure. A sign below the small windowless pane said; 'This is the house of the Pink Lion!', and under that 'Cy was here' all in baby blue sharpie with block letters.

Lion was already inside basically doing what he does best, and that is sleeping. "Pearl, do you like my art I did for lion!" She looked at Pearl with a longing and endearing smile.

Pearl blushed and smiled at the child, "The animals look great! I'm especially impressed by the butterflies." Cy had stars in her eyes, she was so happy, but also undoubtably sleepy. That's when started to yawn.

"Okay, I hear yawning, young lady, it's time for bed!" A soothing voice came from behind them all. It was Rose and as soon as she'd made eye contact with Pearl they just stood there for a second blankly staring at each other before Rose began, "Pearl- I didn't know you where back, yet?" Pearl narrowed her eyes on Rose, "Hey- can I just say I'm sorry and we can look past this, okay? No more secrets?" She sauntered forward a bit towards Pearl extending a hand to shake. Shockingly Pearl knocked her hand away when she was close enough, "Pearl?"

With that unlikely gesture Pearl walked back to the temple ignoring Rose, but saying before she shut the double wide doors behind her: "Goodnight- Bismuth, Amethyst, Lion, Cy and Finn!" Rose was just gob smacked; Pearl has never ignored her once before.

Amethyst waddled up to Rose's side as Bismuth scooped up the kids, "Rose, you going to be okay?" Amethyst asked grabbing her pinky.

Finn was expecting her to come out with it, but what happened just inevitably disgusted him in the end. "Wow, so your just gonna hide again?! What a wet rock? Isn't she just so touchy! I can't believe she was my renegade Pearl in the war!" Rose looked back at Bismuth and the kids, Bismuth had her mouth agape and eyes wide open, but her irises and pupils had narrowed to pinpoints she was so unbelievably blindsided by Rose's unsavory comments towards Pearl. Cy looked like she might've cried as she'd never seen Rose be mean to anyone ever. Finn was gutted, just absolutely gutted, as he thought better of Rose, but now seeing her true feeling come out about Pearl he just felt a deep amount of disappointment in her. He was quite certain his mother would not have also felt this way too with Rose's rudeness either, but luckily, she wasn't around to see two of her best friends fighting.


	5. Only Her

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

* * *

**Writer's Note: I hope everyone I doing well in these strange and unprecedented times, stay safe!**

**I also want to apologize for the delay on this chapter, this had a lot of tricky scenes to put together, and it dives heavily into the plot. The next chapter will be easier to flesh out as it will be a very camp style chapter, and Connie will finally make her appearance in the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Only Her**

The summer night breeze encapsulated the valley where Beach City laid, with citizens lighting off fireworks in the dark hued sky giving the seaside city a vivacious glow, and it was this dazzling light show that had the children's attention. Finn, Cy, and Peedee all sat on top the lighthouse hill that overlooked the ocean, and housed the temple on the sheer face of the cliff.

"Man, I can't believe I have to go back to school soon," Peedee sighed as a vivacious yellow firework exploded overhead, "summers just keep getting shorter and shorter. Why do all the best things happen at the end of the summer?" He closed his eyes, looking downtrodden.

Cy glanced over at her brooding boy, yet before she could say anything her brother took the helm. "Peedee, what's school like?" Finn sat up his eyes still glued to the cascade of blue and white fireworks bedazzling the sky above. "I hear there's this thing called a locker, and a room where all the kids eat together." The cadence in his tone was magical yet innocent. Cy was reflective thinking about how the gems home schooled them. Their combined efforts were great, though luckily it was their other teachers -aka her father and his friend's- who taught them how to spell, how to read, and most importantly how to write thoughtfully.

That's how they met Onion; it was his mother Vidalia taught them how to write, and taught Cy a skill she really never used. It was memories like these that held her attention on the walk home, she almost forgot to say goodnight to Peedee, "Goodnight Peedee!" She kissed him on the head and gleefully ran away under the night's blanketing darkness.

A look of slight surprise took Peedee. In the silence Finn took the chance to speak, his voice was strangely creaky, "I've never seen her so- liberated, now if only she'd have the guts to do it in public."

Peedee's awe turned to worry, "It's not me is it?" The boy was starting to get a bit misty-eyed. He looked up to see Finn nodding his head in approval, Peedee felt a little better about himself, but then Finn turned around and his expression was unreadable.

Finn had no color in his complexion, he looked like he'd been crying. Then he spoke in a low tone, "It's great to see her have a normal life, she really needs that, and for the longest time I didn't know how she'd turn out." Then he followed his sister's lead into the darkness, leaving Peedee in front of his family shop.

* * *

Pearl and Rose were arguing again once Cy stepped in. Pearl just laid there on the floor crying profusely, with her hand firmly over her mouth with Rose indignantly towering over her, laughing like it was some sick game. "Bismuth is still out having a meditation session with Nanafua…?" Cy coldly asked as she just sauntered past the two, indifferent by now that their arguments were a bi-weekly occurrence, "Where's Amethyst?" As if she had summoned the gem with her words, Amethyst wandered out from her room having looked well rested, she yawned obnoxiously. Her hair spilling down in messy knots around her, "Yo, what I miss?" She gathered her surroundings in then just turned around angrily squealing, "Why you gotta do this in front of the kids?" With that comment she returned to the temple.

Cy took a deep breath examining the two like she was looking at them for the first time. It was just really frustrating watching this happen and she couldn't understand why. Then she witnessed it or rather heard it. Pearl had slapped Rose, and both gems were equally taken aback. Cy couldn't take it anymore. "That's it! I've had enough! You two are grounded!" She shouted at the gems who just gave her a funny look, they then glared at each other. Rose turned around and left through the front door without a word as Finn was making his way up the steps.

"Rose?" He stepped in a moment later quite frazzled by Rose's sudden departure, "What was that about?" He saw Pearl sitting on the ground not looking at him. She was ashamed and he could sense that, but sadly before he could say anything to her, she ran right for the temple. He just looked on at the temple door, "Did I just hear you ground them, well done, I guess?"

Cy was kneading her temples, "Ugh… finally a moment of peace."

* * *

Two weeks gone by without a sign of Rose- everyone was extremely rattled by her disappearance, except Pearl. She just stayed in her room most days, and if you did catch her outside of her room it wasn't the Pearl everyone knew, as she had undergone a hue shift. She was much duller, almost ghostly in appearance, so the gem essentially haunted the rest of them. Amethyst was constantly out searching for Rose, coming back nightly for rest, food, and to see the twins. Every time she came in without Rose it was just another sad reminder of how bad things were. Bismuth on the other hand, was now playing full time mother with the twins, having Greg around more often to get them into a routine as normally Pearl would see to that, but she was preoccupied to say the least. It might've been hard to notice, however; Greg too was concerned about Rose just up and leaving, as he had said earlier to the twins: "Rose and Pearl have… thousands of years' worth of things to talk about, but I don't know if Pearl can. It's complicated."

Bismuth too was no consolation for the twins either as she preferred to avoid the subject altogether. "Gee, I wish I could just make Pearl feel better with a hug." A downhearted Cy found herself saying one morning at breakfast. This morning they were having a favorite of hers; smiley face pancakes, but today's mood just didn't feel as cheery as the maple syrup face had implied.

Finn was mid deep into his Frosted Frutti Formica when he paused his eating to answer his sister, "I don't think it would be that easy Cy. Pearl has every right to feel the way she does," Finn quipped back as he took a spoonful of cereal down. He'd already eaten his stack of pancakes and needed a bit more.

This remark was enough for Bismuth to put on a giddy smirk, "Hmm… I take it Pearl told you about her and Rose?" She backtracked a little and corrected herself, "Or lack of, I should say." She took a sip of her tea, pinky out.

Cy stood on her stool wobbling uncontrollably, "What? Pearl like likes Rose? What a twist?" The way she stated her last question it was more of a declaration, her inflection of ridiculousness coupled with a goofy smile really wasn't funny- if she was attempting to be, "Soooo… Pearl and Rose… hmm… I don't see it."

Bismuth's laugh was not the reaction she was expecting. The gem was in a full-blown fit, wiping tears from her eyes, and snorting, "You kid's are so intuitive it blows my mind sometimes," she chuckled as her eyes narrowed. She stopped her hysterics as she shifted closer to the kids. "A long time ago, Rose and Pearl were umm… I guess you could call them freedom fighters? Anyway, they had always been pretty attached since I'd met them, but I hear there was a time where Rose may have or have not reciprocated the feelings Pearl had for her." Bismuth inserted a rather pregnant pause before she continued, "Now Rose was beloved by so many gems, a staggering amount in fact, and she was adored by humans alike. I always think the Earth was her one true love, which I guess meant there was no place for Pearl, but thousands of years- being led on and used by someone you've devoted your existence to clearly has its faults."

Cy's eyes widened to the size of plums. Finn pushed his glasses further up his nose. So many questions were spiraling through the kid's heads, but before they could ask any Bismuth began to speak again: "I couldn't exactly imagine what Pearl thinks about when Rose is around. It's definitely toxic, but for some bizarre reason or another we all sort of bend at the knee for Rose… don't we?" Come to think of it this realization was plain as day, yet the kids never quite questioned it, "AND I think their issues really hit a wall when Rose committed herself to saving the Earth from… uhh-" she stammered, her cool façade broken by a look that implied she might've divulged too much, "unwanted visitors. The battling, the chaos, the countless souls lost, but in the thick of it was always Pearl and Rose against the enemy. Off the battlefield though Rose was known to let her feelings about humans and gems open to public knowledge, yet never once did Rose proclaim anything for Pearl as she would other suitors... or even the Earth for that matter."

"What do you mean when you say 'unwanted visitors' Bismuth?" she squeaked standing on her chair, sucking in her cheeks, pursing her lips, with a hand on her hip, and full sass enacted. The temple door dematerialized before Cy could get an answer, in the murky dark entry stood the ghost of Pearl, and the sight was mystifying.

She spoke in a low gravelly tone as if she'd been battling a terrible respiratory infection for weeks, "Bismuth, can we… take a walk?"

Bismuth shot up from her stool with a force that shook the plates on the counter. Her jaw had dropped, with her eyes bulging from their lids. "Yeah Pearl, umm…" She looked back at the kids, "I'll be back later, I guess? Amethyst is in charge while Pearl and I are gone. Also, Finnie, don't forget to return that wrench we borrowed from the carwash, okay baby?" With that she had Pearl under her arm and the two silently exited the house.

Chomping down into her first pancake in anger, little Cy was seething from how close she was to answers, and her embittered grunts only made the breakfast more unappetizing for Finn. He pushed his remaining cereal aside, "There's more to this than what Bismuth is telling us," his lowered his voice in case someone would step into the room as he spoke, "Those 'unwanted visitors' she mentioned, are actually other gems…"

Cy dropped her fork onto the plate, "What a twist?" She leaned closer to her brother, "Tell me what you know!" Her gray eyes were sparkling now like silver candles reflecting a pure flame.

Finn then began to divulge everything he'd seen and heard Pearl say while he was chasing her. Once he'd wrapped up, he stared at his sister for a minute, pondering their next move, "It seems like Bismuth is going to keep some parts of the truth from us, and I don't want to ask Pearl or Amethyst… I wonder if there's someone we know who might have the information we're seeking?" He got down from his stool and stroked his chin for a good moment deep in thought.

"Why don't we ask dad?"

Finn looked at his sister, unsure whether to take her suggestion seriously or not, but it might've been the only honest lead they could produce since the gems might all try to keep certain details from them. Plus, he did have to return the wrench to the carwash.

* * *

"DAD! DAD! DAD!" The twins bellowed at the ran up the carwash driveway later that morning. Greg was relaxing in a beach chair with his sunglasses on, music cranked up to one hundred, and just looking genuinely peaceful. Well until he saw his kids running up to him, Finn flailing a monkey wrench above his head.

"Finn! Cy!? What the-?" He bolted up to his feet, gasped loudly, and quickly yanked the wrench from his son's hand, "What in the world is going on with you two? Are you two okay? Thanks for bringing back the monkey wrench, but Finn please do not wield it like a medieval weapon, bud. You almost gave me a heart attack kiddo." He lowered the music on the radio, "Now what's got you both so crazy today?"

The two looked at each other and then back at their dad, "Rose and Pearl and the war of Earth!" They both blurted out in unison.

Using his free hand Greg tilted his sunglasses up onto his forehead, "Oh geez, heavy questions today?" He wanders into the garage for a moment, then returning with two beach chairs he plops them down around his own cozy setup, and gesturing them to take a seat he cleared his throat: "I wasn't really expecting to be the one to tell you guys this stuff? Still judging by your faces, I take it the gems aren't telling you much." He stopped to gather his thoughts, "Wow- where to begin? I guess the best place to start is what your mother told me, and believe me I question how these things happened myself… Anyway, way long before I was born your mother, Rose, Pearl, Bismuth, and lots of their friends started a war against their homeworld."

"So… we're aliens?" Finn piped up utterly fascinated by this, "I thought mom was from Earth?"

"No… no… not at all. She really didn't like to talk about that fact, and she really didn't want you two to think of yourselves as part alien. This war was started from the rulers of your mom's home planet coming to Earth, and trying to destroy it. The Crystal Gems didn't want any of that to happen, so they began to grow their army. I don't know how long this war was, but I do know that in the end the leaders of the gem home planet created a superweapon that wiped out most of the gems that lived here. Unfortunately, Rose's shield could only protect your mom, Pearl, and Bismuth… leaving them as the survivors in that war." Greg paused trying to gauge his kid's reactions, but both twins just seemed to have more questions from this story than answers sadly, "I'm gonna grab us some sodas and snacks, you two stay here, and I guess try to process all that information." He nervously chirped, jogging into the carwash.

A fine afternoon followed this morning of strange events and revelations. Greg treated the twins to to-go milkshakes and fries from a neighboring county, it was all very scrumptious, and was the first time the twins had tried food from somewhere other than Beach City.

"Hey, so how are you two planning on confronting the gems now that you know about the war?" Greg inquired taking a small handful of fries onto his plate, "You know they won't be happy you went over their heads."

Cy sipped on her milkshake thinking about her father's question for a moment, and she was instantly stuck with an idea. Clearing her throat, she began to explain, "I think we should talk to Amethyst first; I mean we know enough now that it would be rather impossible to avoid the topic. And if we can get anything more out of her before talking to the others that might work out the best." Finn nodded in agreement, "She's usually pretty honest with us two, and if we confront her with all this, I don't foresee her holding anything back."

Greg sat back in his beach chair looking at his plate of fries, "I hope that plan works out for you two, just remember though you two might still not get the full story, so if you both want to know about this sore subject more I think you should do your own research." He took a fry and dipped it in ketchup before consuming the greasy morsel.

* * *

Cy and Finn carefully contemplated how they could begin researching this rather bizarre subject as they walked home later on that day. Finn suggesting a figuring out a map that corresponds with the strawberry battlefield as their jumping point. Now figuring out the warp pad was another story, but perhaps they could figure out a way to bypass that. As they passed Lion's stable Cy brought up a pretty solid idea, "What if we went to school?" Her brother gave her a skeptical look at the thought, "Come on, hear me out brother!" She whined. "Peedee is always talking about how if he has any homework, he goes to the school's library to do his research. Ooof… and I almost forgot the town's library doesn't have a computer we can use."

The more he wanted to eschew his sister's plan he couldn't help but realize it might've been their best bet, but how do you get enrolled in school?

* * *

Amethyst was the only gem around when the got inside. She was snoozing peacefully on the couch as the twins entered the house. Her snores and involuntary lip-smacking sounds were all too familiar to the kids, and as much as they'd normally let her just sleep, time was of the essence.

So naturally the two kids struck while they had time by jumping on top of the slumbering gem causing her to gasp as her eyes shot wide open, "What the-!?" She gathered her surroundings with a quick tilting of her neck, "Yo! What the heck you guys? I was having this amazing dream where I was made of pudding!" She groaned in exasperation as the siblings hopped off Amethyst.

The twins quickly apologized for their sudden intrusion to her personal space, but wasted no time mincing words, "We know about the gem war!" They both blurted out unable to contain themselves.

Amethyst's expression soured from the grogginess in place to a fierce pout, "Ugghh… you two can't be serious right now," she paused putting her palm to her forehead, "that was like thousands of years ago dudes, I wasn't even around."

"True," the inquisitive Cy pondered as she was starting to think this plan might backfire. Maybe Amethyst didn't know much about the war either, "But, you have to know something. Isn't it just odd how there was this war, and then later on -poof- you were alive?"

Amethyst was getting mad, with her cheeks flushing wildly. She didn't like this interrogation, she felt attacked, "Yeah well sometimes things are just strange, weird, and wrong- I don't want to talk about this anymore," she got up quickly and started to dash towards the temple door.

"Amethyst," Finn began in a stern tone, "you're always inspiring us not to run from our problems, yet now you want to start running from your own?" Amethyst stopped in her tracks, but didn't turn to face him. "I get that this is a deeply rooted issue for you, otherwise you wouldn't be running from us, but if you talk about how it makes you feel the burden does get lighter."

There was an eerie silence that fell upon them all. And that silence was broken by Amethyst sighing in defeat, "There are things about the gems, that I don't even understand, and sometimes I feel like they left me out of those issues because… I was made to be a weapon for that war."

Cy was exasperated by that declaration, and never once did Amethyst give off the impression of a war machine. It was enigmatic hearing this come from her as she really didn't talk about her feelings in such an open way, let alone with the kids.

"What do you mean?" Finn asked shaken by Amethyst's sudden vulnerability.

Amethyst wiped her eyes and turned back to face to twins, "We didn't want you to find out because… the gems that aren't from Earth tried to destroy it by creating gem soldiers out from the ground. Every day they were here they'd drain every organic ounce of life until the planet was just a dead rock floating in space. Garnet didn't want her kids to think of us as alien monsters from some evil galaxy, but your mother and Rose did a good job in keeping the Crystal Gem name clean for you guys. Garnet was always the go-between for us all, and even before I came around, she was always putting herself between Rose and Pearl's arguments. As I got older the fighting came to an end, Garnet didn't have to give a ton of effort into keeping the gems happy, so she started looking at the Earth and all it's miracles in a new way. Rose on the other hand kinda grew bored of the Earth for a few thousand years, well that was until you two were born. Funny she fought for this planet, killed a homeworld leader, and then she did nothing… the ballad of Rose Quartz."

Once again this was a lot to process at once, but before the kids could ask, they were interrupted by Bismuth's booming voice coming from the front door, "AMETHYST!" The burly purple gem's expression was livid, her eyes narrowed on the smaller purple gem, and her scowl was immense.

Pearl then stormed in behind Bismuth. She was a violent shade of pinky red and her face mirrored Bismuth's, "You told them about the war?! Why don't you just tell them everything? Like about the time the Diamonds corrupted all our friends with that blast from space or when Garnet had to shatter hundreds of gems to get close enough to that fleet of Hessonite!"

"What are you even talking about?!" She grilled Pearl, but then her expression grew horrified by the gravity of the whole situation, "Wait- those monsters- those things we bubble? They're your friends and you just keep them on display like some fancy trick pony!?" Amethyst realized how messed up this all was as she spat back at Pearl from across the room, "I don't even know half these things because you two and Rose won't talk to me about it!" She was pulling her hair now and crying, "You get all secretive and act like it's all my fault these bad things happened, yet I can't even know or ask about it because 'it's not my place to ask'!" She was yelling pretty loudly now, "I know I'm a mistake, I was made to be a monster, but why do you guys always have to remind me of that fact when you ignore me!" She roared and turned tail, running into the temple, tears trailing her tracks.

In that moment same Pearl let out a scream of frustration, and following Amethyst's lead she stomped into the temple as well.

Bismuth, who wasn't saying a word just looked really guilty, and who could blame her. She just wanted peace but she'd have to admit to herself that she wasn't Garnet.

"Bismuth? What does it mean to 'shatter' a gem?" Cy inquired with big bold bulgy eyes.

Bismuth didn't say a word. "I have a feeling it means the gems are dead, sis," Cy answered as Bismuth just nodded very shamefully.

* * *

The three didn't exchange another single word, and the rest of the day and night stayed relatively quiet. Pearl nor Amethyst came out from their respective room, and by now they'd written off seeing a return from Rose.

Cy was busy later that evening feeding her hermit crab Garnet, who was skittering around her little terrarium picking up little pieces of driftwood and stacking them neatly in the one corner. Cy was so fascinated by Garnet's little habits and roles she'd taken on since living in captivity. The little crustacean had its own schedule it abided by to a tee. It was mesmerizing how natural it was for the tiny crab to follow these unwritten orders like she'd been sent a guidebook from the crab gods. Cy then wondered what it would be like if she suddenly became a hermit crab. Naturally she'd hope her new body's biological responses would allow her to immerse herself into the microcosm of hermit crab life, but what if she just turned into a hermit crab and maintained her human brain? Would she survive? Could she find purpose in being thrusted into her new role? So many questions like these swirled through her head until she came to a rather radical conclusion: Amethyst has probably asked herself these same questions often. Cy was gutted by her sudden thought, and felt very sympathetic towards Amethyst in that moment.

How do you just start? How do you just live without any guidance? And when you are given guidance how hard is it to attach yourself to these changes? Like the wandering hermit crab Amethyst most likely was alone for a long time, a prospect that gave Cy the chills, but then when she found the right shell it must've been a tricky fit. Forcing herself to become what the gems molded her to be. Sad. Sad because she couldn't just choose it, it just happened that way, but unlike the hermit crab she couldn't leave her current shell even though it was cracked, holy, and old.

Sleep was the silver lining to this melancholy night, but Cy's thoughts stayed with Amethyst, the war, fusion, the corrupted gems, Pearl's plight. It was all too much right now she was just too wound to even try to sleep, so she just kept tossing and turning. Midnight came and went, but Cy had enough of the millions of thoughts whizzing through her mind. She initially got up to just pour a glass of water for herself, but her mindless body carried her out the front door instead. Usually by this time the gems would be off doing oddball scouting for any corrupted gems, but tonight that wasn't the case unfortunately. Still the off-day made her leave easier and to top it off Finn was dead to the world in a never-ending slumber. She started to walk up towards lion's shack when Cy noticed Lion was awake and someone in all grey was petting him, but his mane covered this person's face pretty well.

"Who's that?" Cy's little voice quivered in the stillness of the night.

Finn then moved lion's fluffy mane out of the way, "It's just me sis… couldn't sleep either?" Finn sighed with a heavy shrug. He stuck his hands into his onesie pajama pockets then walked out of the pen towards her. He was wearing his Picker Knights onesie; it was essentially a plush suit of armor with the insignia on the chest; a red hand reaching out to pick a diamondfruit from the vine. They hugged each other for a minute and a half in silence, both just listening to the muted sounds coming from the small waves in the ocean. Lion even curled up around the two like a big pink boppy for a newborn.

They spent the next hour looking at the sights on lion's back, first they ran on the ocean's surface watching a pod of dolphins breach the shimmery waters only to dive back into the depths, next they scaled a tall nearly vertical peak with dust and cool mountain air running through their hair, and then they traversed a large moonflower field in bloom, scattering fireflies as lion gracefully bounded towards the inland.

A few minutes later they found themselves in a neighborhood that looked a bit high end for the Beach City citizens. These small mansions lined on a uniform street all lit up by festive fall lights, and as they got further down the street the houses seemed to get more and more bright as they passed by. One house in particular caught Finn's eye, it was a large house covered in large glass windows with beautiful bright sconces that accurately illuminated the house, so you could tell it was a staggering shade of hot pink. Lion was also transfixed by the off-putting shade of blazing pink, so much that he stopped right on the front lawn just to admire its uniqueness and contrast compared to the rest of the ritzy neighborhood. Then they heard a door slam, followed by a woman's voice, "It's over Kevin, I'm just not in love with you! Put that ring away." Then they heard heavy footsteps coming from the massive side yard to their left. Finn, Cy, and Lion's mouths all dropped when they got a good look at the stumbling young woman. She was almost, if not, a spitting image of Rose, but they knew better as the voice was lower and grittier. The mystery lady with the pink hair then noticed the two children mounted on the pink lion just casually resting on the front lawn with their mouths agape, "Jeez, I have got to stop drinking hot sauce straight!" They heard her say practically brushing them off as if this was a normal everyday sighting.

They didn't linger to see how the situation played out to avoid more unwanted attention. It was a fluke that their presence didn't rattle that woman. "Love looks complicated," Cy commented thinking about Rose and Pearl as Lion was starting to roundabout back towards Beach City. On the way they'd stumbled upon a lover's lane of sorts with a young couple sitting on a cliff that overlooked Beach City. The woman looked pregnant silhouetted by the lights coming from Beach City's boardwalk, and the man held a hand to her belly, he was visibly shorter than the woman with a long mane that his appearance was nearly beastly. It evoked some very powerful emotions in the twins that both couldn't help, but shed a tear or two.

They continued on through the streets of Beach City at a slow lag. It was almost two in the morning, and they'd both be exhausted tomorrow. As they passed by the carwash, they noticed their dad's van parked up in the driveway, "Lion stop here." Finn requested.

The twins dismounted Lion and meandered up the driveway towards the van. Through the silence they could hear the faint buzzing coming from the old light post on the corner. It was all so bizarre being here at night, granted the only difference was that it was dark, but this was normal only having their dad present on the lot.

Cy knocked lightly on the van's backdoor, then they backed up slightly, so they didn't get hit when it opened. There was a muffled yawn followed by a gruff Greg scratchily saying, "Is it morning already?" A minute had passed, but eventually Greg opened the backdoors to his van, "Tell me you two didn't run away?"

Finn laughed while Cy just smiled cheekily, "No dad, we didn't run away, but can we stay here tonight with you?" Finn asked approaching his father arms opened for a hug. Cy then did the same as all three Universe family members embraced.

"Yeah, come on in let's get you two tucked in, and ready for sleep."


	6. New Kids

_**The Universe Twins**_

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

* * *

**Author's Note: Thank you all, first and foremost, for waiting upon this chapter. This was a very fun and special chapter to make as I felt like it should be since the Twins have an interesting experience in this chapter. I hope you enjoy the latest installment, and I hope the next chapter can be out before Halloween as I'm trying to catch up to the twins now. In this story their currently around early September, but I'd like to get to at least Chapter 9 by Halloween as I could definitely plug the Halloween one a few days into November. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I want to explicitly state this- Cy is getting a lot of attention in this one, and Finn is getting some development. There is a lot of content in this so I hope it's not to much for one chapter. I just felt like this would be the perfect time to delve into Finn's psyche and how he relates to Ruby.**

**Please Enjoy :D**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The New Kids**

It was a glorious late summer day when the kids all started going back to school. The sun was shining, the temperature was cool, and you could hear a bus every now and then picking up the few kids who lived in Beach City. Today was an extremely special day for the kid's though, as Greg had talked to a friend who was a headmaster of a nice school twenty miles from Beach City, and the twins had been "randomly selected" as last-minute replacements in case someone dropped out.

Greg was hauling the kids backpacks to the van, but having difficulty doing so. "Geez, I didn't think you'd have to bring all the required books, and tools… these bags might as well have some rocks in there. How are you gonna carry these?"

Cy poked her head out of the back of the van, "Peedee says we get lockers in school, so I just might leave my books there. Another kid can find them and keep them!" She smiled gleefully as Greg just heaved a heavy sigh, tossing the heavy backbreaking work into the van right next to Cy.

From the passenger seat Finn was yawning, "It's not even our birthday and you're this awake at seven thirty?" He started to blast some of his dad's CD's to drown out his sister's energy. She was going on about the cafeteria, and how Peedee would call it 'the slop troth'.

* * *

The car ride was surprisingly pleasant, barely any traffic, give or take the occasional bus stopping to pick up kids in various neighborhoods, but nevertheless they got there about five minutes early. _Crestwood Academy_ was intimidating on first glance, as its three-story grey shell towered over the twins. It almost looked like a prison. There was no plant life except the grass that lined the sports fields in the far-right corner.

"I'll be back to pick you kids up at three o'clock, call me if you guys need anything! I Love you guys, have a good day at school!" He was unnecessarily loud and almost condescending when he said those words. He took off as simultaneously all the students in earshot began to laugh at the twins.

Greg was looking back at Cy and Finn though his rearview mirror, "Ahh- I've always wanted to embarrass them on their first day of school! Builds character! That's how I got to live such a rebellious life!" The pleased father winked at himself in the rearview mirror.

As the raucous laughter keep coming their way, the twins started to slowly move down the pathway towards the school. Eventually once they'd passed the halfway mark the children surrounding them on either side had now formed an impenetrable circle around them.

The twins were absolutely baffled by these other children laughing at them, now trapping them, and just getting in the twins' way. Both just had blank faces, well more so Finn, whereas Cy was starting to get worked up. She looked over her shoulder to see that the students had also cut them off behind them. She backed up to his backside and locked hands with him. Finn could sense Cy's emotional breakdown coming. Today wasn't the day for anyone to mess with his sister's head. With a shout he addressed the masses, "What?! Do all your parents not love you?" He could feel the sorrow for the kids who probably just laughed because it's human to follow laughter, "Shame!" He pulled away from Cy a smidge, but didn't let go. Cy started to loosen her grip as everyone stopped laughing and just glared at Finn in disgust and aghast, like he was the freak for saying such hurtful things.

One larger than average kid with scruffy jet-black hair, dark circles under his eyes, and arms that could pop one's head off in a chokehold stepped forward from amongst the crowd of children, "What did you just say kid?" His fists were clenched, and he had a gaze as sharp as daggers- he was now locking eyes with the still unfazed Finn.

"Well- at first I thought everyone here had parents who neglect to say I love you to them," he smirked, somehow feeling there was some truth in what he said to this kid. "Now, I'm thinking-" he pointed his small finger at the monstrously sized child, "IT'S JUST YOU! What's wrong? Mommy doesn't kiss you at night or give you hugs, is that it?" He was seething with fury and some sadness as well.

Cy's grip tightened again, "Finn what are you doing, you'll get us kicked out?" She turned enough to see the savage man-sized child before her, and she was filling up with anxiety again. Some small noise, akin to a mouse, came out of her mouth as the bully's shadow began to engulf them, blocking out the sun.

This hulking kid was getting extremely red in the face, "I've never seen your face around here so before I pound it in- for talking about my mother like that- I'll let you in on some facts. I'm Ronnie and I run this school. If you can't accept that, I will be glad to pulverize your glasses into your face so hard that it implodes! Now that that's been cleared up it's time for a beatdown!" He swung his ham sized hand at Finn to knock him out.

Everyone standing to witness the altercation gasped at the same time-

Finn caught his punch before it could even connect, and he was just holding this bully Ronnie by palming his huge fist into his tiny hand with a suction like motion, "At least you have a mom!" Finn yelled back at the hulking child with a vein bulging from his furrowed brow. Everyone watching experienced a simultaneous gasp, and all the while Cy was just standing there, mouth open, corners of her lips and knees quivering like a frail autumn leaf in the wind. Absolutely petrified, but also dumbfounded.

Ronnie pulled back in shock, "What the-!" He seemed to have a panicked look in his eyes now as Finn approached him slowly like a viper ready to strike. Ronnie tripped over some uneven cement and cowered as Finn got closer, "Hey, look I was just kidding about that whole 'I rule this school stuff', and I'm sorry for trying to hit you! Please don't hurt me, freak!"

Finn flipped his hair out of his eyes, "I won't. But listen clearly, my sister and I are here for possibly only today, and you're going to escort us around." Ronnie gulped nodding while his face turned pale. "I don't need anyone in my way, and you seem like a good bodyguard type."

The crowd was getting bigger now, and everyone whispering amongst themselves. "And as for all of you, I suggest you take a real look at the person your gossiping with, because there is a high chance that they are gossiping about you behind their back." The whispering stopped and there was a shameful silence that fell upon the kids. The silent tension was cut by the school bell ringing, "Now Ronnie, I assume that bell tells us the school day has started?" Once again Ronnie just nodded. "Good, now get up and take us to the principal's office if you wouldn't mind. We have an appointment and don't want to be late."

Ronnie got up slowly. His lips trembling as he spoke, "But what about homeroom?"

Finn just laughed, and slapped the bigger guy on the back in a friendly manor, as the crowd began to disperse, "Oh Ronnie, you won't need to worry about school today, also you don't seem like you care about school, if I'm being honest." It was now just Ronnie, Finn, Cy, and a girl who looked to be of Indian descent standing a few feet away.

"Fair enough," Ronnie nervously laughed.

"I'm Finn by the way and this is Cy, my sister," the twins extended their tiny hands to be shaken by this behemoth boy who in reality was much bigger than them they could only shake his finger.

The Indian girl chimed in from behind, "I'm Connie, sorry to interrupt, uhh- whatever this was, but I couldn't help but overhear that you all are going to the principal's office. I need to go there as well since I'm also starting school at Crestwood today. I just moved here!"

Cy was feeling very relaxed by Connie's presence that she walked right up to her and hugged her, "Hi Connie! I love your hair, and your glasses are so cute too!" Connie blushed as Cy just grinned, glad to be out of a very crazy situation.

"Thanks!" She took the glasses off for a moment as their hug had fogged them up, "Your hair is very nice too! I love the way it makes your eyes pop Cy!" She pulled out a lens cloth to wipe the lenses then put her glasses back on her face. From there her gaze drifted over to Finn, "Wow! Your eyes!"

Finn was blushing now. He didn't like people commenting on his appearance. Even if it was positive, "What about them?"

Connie was bursting with excitement, "You have heterochromia." His sister just looked at the two with a quizzical look.

Finn was really red now, "To be honest, I don't quite know myself in that way, yet." He shrugged his shoulders bringing them to touch his ears.

Ronnie chimed in, "Nah dude, heterochromia is when you have two different colored eyes." He gestures for the girls to step aside. He then bent over to get a good closer look at his eyes, "Oh yeah he does, one's blue, the other one is like… a purple!" Now Ronnie was being eyed up curiously by the assessment, "What? My cats have heterochromia, that's how I know about this- uhh… Cy what are you doing?"

Immediately triggered by hearing this news, little Cy had jumped onto Ronnie's back in piggyback position, "You will tell me stories about your cats as you carry me to the principal's office." She melted into his massive curly haired head mumbling, "Kitties…"

Ronnie just shrugged and hiked his arms around her legs to prop her up further, "I like you Cy, quiet but chaotic, just like Christmas at Grampa Joe's when Aunt Stacy had too much wine, and things get politically insensitive!" His gaze trailed off after saying that.

* * *

About ten minutes later the four were now waiting outside the principal's office discussing many different topics; Finn found out that Ronnie and Connie are both fans of Picker Knights, Cy was mesmerized by stories of Ronnie's cats Jayju and Tina, Connie learned that Ronnie is actually her backyard neighbor, and Ronnie was just very excited to have friends who weren't afraid of him.

An older black woman emerged from the doorway leading towards the principal's office, she was wearing horn rimmed glasses with a string tied to each arm, a tan maxi dress that highlighted her voluptuous figure very well, and black flats that had a small tan bow on each. "Okay, I'm confused. Ronnie why are you here? School didn't even start and you got sent down here? Bad boy!"

Finn stood up to greet the woman, "Hi, I'm Finn, this is my sister Cy, and our friend Connie. Ronnie here, is also our friend, and is helping us because we are new." He shook the receptionist's hand with a friendly warmth, but placing a firm emphasis on the word friend to indicate he wasn't fond of her assumption.

The woman just started to laugh, and she wouldn't stop for a while. "Oh, you're serious, Well I'm sorry for accusing you of being in trouble Ronnie, and it's nice to see you turn a new leaf! You look good with friends by your side."

Ronnie smiled, probably the widest and fullest smile since they all met, and said, "Apology accepted Mrs. Practer, it does feel good to have friends now!"

About ten minutes later Mrs. Practer had returned with four slips of paper, "Unfortunately Miss Grimswald won't be able to see you all today in person, but she is giving you all day passes. Ronnie you are excused from classes today as you'll be their guide." She distributed the purple slips to all of them, "With these you have access to any classroom or student common room for the whole day." The quartet got up to begin their journey, "Oh and before you leave, Finn and Cy," the twins stopped and turned back to face Mrs. Practer, "Miss Grimswald says hello to your father!" She smiled and waved the group off as they exited the waiting room.

* * *

The hallways of the school were lined with artwork from all students- even if some were not the best, the occasional grand mural was also a huge feature that adorned some of the hallways, and it was probably the coolest and most exciting thing the twins had seen so far, "Wow! That's a lot of art, is this a school to hone your skills?" Cy asked, back on top of Ronnie. Only this time she was straddling his shoulders looking down at the very few students- walking the halls- who just stared up at her, and then at Ronnie who paid them no mind, "I am your queen, you must bow to me!" She quipped completely unprovoked, the ego trip she was having from being aloft on a bully's shoulders must've been quite powerful, as Finn wasn't used to her being so bold. Connie and Ronnie both laughed seemingly amused by Cy's claims of royalty.

"Well m'lady," Ronnie began impersonating a posh footman, "This school is known for its many art classes, but not just in drawing and painting. We also got pottery, creative writing, poetry, sculpting, freeform dance, a band class where I play the triangle by the way-!"

He was interrupted by his cheeks being smushed together by Cy's tiny hands, "You're a musician… mysterious…" the look in her eyes was indicative that she was forming a little crush on Ronnie. Finn couldn't help but chuckle under his breath.

The cute moment was unfortunately fleeting as Ronnie started booking it down the hallway towards this small boy with geeky glasses, freckles, and frizzy blond hair. His tone had switched back to the more daunting, and menacing voice he was using earlier when he and Finn were about to fight, "Hey Sebastian, you got my money, friend?" Seeing trouble was about to start Finn ran ahead to intervene. The boy named Sebastian was convulsing from a deep mind-numbing fear as Ronnie started to form a fist and cock it back.

"Ronnie no!" Both Connie and Finn were screaming, but it wasn't reaching him. Ronnie launched his fist, but it was stopped immediately by Cy with a quick double heel kick to the chest. Sebastian took the opportunity to run while Ronnie collapsed to his knees having the wind knocked out of him.

Cy hopped off of his shoulder and held Ronnie's face in her tiny hands, "I'm sorry for kicking you Ronnie, but why were you about to punch that defenseless kid?" Connie and Finn had just caught up to them, hands on their knees, and just as winded as the giant boy Ronnie.

"Well I'm still a bully-" he wheezed clutching his chest as he doubled over. He was coughing and gasping hard, his eyes bloodshot, and his face contorted in pain.

Cy patted him on the back to help him regain his breath, "Well that's wrong Ronnie. If you want to still be friends you have to stop bullying kids," Ronnie grumbled through hoarse breaths. "If you won't do it for friendship, will you do it for your queen?" Ronnie looked up at Cy blushing madly again. He was conflicted.

Connie pulled out a water bottle from her backpack, "Here Ronnie, take a quick drink, bud." He took a quick sip and then awkwardly nodded to Cy who was now fluttering her long eyelashes.

Taking a deep breath Ronnie looked intensely into her eyes. He was still a shade of pale pink from lack of oxygen and embarrassment, "Fine. It's going to be hard; I don't know how to just stop."

Finn stood next to his sister with his arm around her shoulders, "Well if you can't learn, we can't all be friends. We don't befriend bullies, unless they can change, and keep up with the change. Plus, you'll feel so much better from being good, I can guarantee that." Cy extended her tiny hand to help Ronnie to his feet, which he took with a smile, in addition to holding back tears.

Once he was back on his feet Cy embraced the giant, burying her face into his stomach, mumbling something about friendship, cats, and homework. She broke away from his abdominal wall proclaiming, "Ronnie, you and Connie, should come to our house after school to hang out!"

Connie blushed looking at Finn, "I've never been invited to someone else's house before, I'll have to call my parents, and ask them if it's okay." Finn looked back at Connie's rosy face, and started to gain a little red in his cheeks from Connie's bashful smile.

Ronnie looked aside, "My parents probably won't care, but I'll have to be home before nine or I'll be sleeping outside… again." He sighed wiping his wet eyelids.

Cy climbed up Ronnie's back again, kissed him on his cheek, and then patted it with a soothing shush escaping her mouth, "You can stay at the temple if that happens." Ronnie was now a bright apple red all over his face as Cy proceeded to mount his shoulders once again, "Because that's what friends do for friends who have terrible parents! Right Phineas?"

Connie's mouth fell open, "Phineas? Is that you're full first name?" Finn nodded a little chuffed by his sister's comment, it wasn't often that his sister used his birth name rather than his nickname, and he wasn't ashamed of it at all, "That's so cool! I love that name… but Finn is very adorable." Connie giggled lightly and now Finn was matching Ronnie in his deep crimson face.

"Uhh… I- umm…" Finn gulped in air heavily, "yeah, of course." Finn shook his head to cool off a bit, it nearly started to produce smoke, but luckily it hadn't gotten to that point. Finn cleared his throat, cleaned his lenses for they had fogged up terribly, and shifted slightly to the left. "So uhh…" he produced a fake cough, "Cy what uhh… what was it we came here to do again?"

Cy scratched her chin in thought for a moment, she gasped and then blurted out, "Where's the computer room, Ronnie?" Ronnie pointed in the direction that frail boy named Sebastian had ran, "For real? Or do you just wanna bully that kid again?"

Ronnie was sweating a bit, but swallowed hard and said, "It really- is down there, but if I see that kid, I'll restrain myself…" His face then contorted in discomfort, "Oww… my head hurts!"

Connie chimed in gleefully, "That's good! Your mind is creating new associations with bullying by firing off neurons to prevent your natural tendencies from taking over…" everyone looked very confused by Connie's words, "He's learning bullying is bad, and his brain is saying 'no' to things that will cause him to bully kids."

The twins both clapped in unison, proud of Ronnie for his change, and with that the quartet of friends began to make their way down the hall towards the computer lab.

* * *

As they made their way down the hall they were stopped without warning, "Excuse me! Hall monitor Dan here, now show me some passes!" He was about Finn's height with tinted sunglasses covering his eyes even though they were all inside, and he was slightly muscley for a child. "I won't repeat myself again, hall passes, please!"

Finn wasn't amused by this, "Should I just pass you? I don't get whatever this is?"

Ronnie chuckled at Finn's naivety, "I got this, just show him the passes from the principal," with that being explained all four flashed the purple passes to Dan who was just speechless.

"P-purple passes!" He collected them all quickly, "Gotta make sure these aren't forged." He held them all up to the light which caused a hidden watermark to appear before his eyes. His eyes lingering on Cy's. He took another moment before saying, "It seems like this is your lucky day Ronnie! I know someone's been making fakes of these, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's you!" He pointed his finger at Ronnie who didn't take the comment lightly, but before he could even say a word Finn stepped up to hall monitor Dan.

Finn's chest was puffed out as he leaned into Dan's face, "I don't like you, and I don't like the way you're talking to my friend. Now leave us ALL alone, we're busy, so help me if I hear you're trying to get Ronnie in trouble or cause him to go back to his old ways, I will not hesitate to feed you to my lion!" Dan started to laugh at the farfetched claim. Meanwhile Connie and Ronnie just looked at each other very confused.

Cy piped up, "Please, leave Lion out of this, brother!" Dan stopped laughing and looked up to the angel whose voice had enraptured him, "Kid, he's not joking, we really do have a lion, so just get out of here." Dan started to back away muttering under his breath about crazy people with lions and cute girls with curls.

Ronnie looked up at Cy and then back down to Finn, "Wow thanks guys! Dan's been on my case since we became step-brothers." The other three shared a collective snort of laughter.

Cy perched herself up on her legs and leaned over Ronnie's head to make eye contact, "That dingus is your brother?" She then chuckled to herself, "What a wad!"

"So, wait, what were you going to do if we weren't here?" Connie spoke up looking back down the hallway where Dan was roughing up some girl for her hall pass, "That's sick." She said in an eerily disapproving voice with narrowed eyes.

Ronnie sighed and slumped a bit as Cy resumed her seated position on his shoulders, "Nothing. His mom thinks I should be sent to a school for troubled kids, but my mom says nothing about it." He felt his hand balling up into a fist, "I just want to pulverize the little poser." He took a deep breath and allowed himself to calm down, "That's not me anymore though, I have friend's now, and he's probably just jealous since he doesn't have any."

Cy looked down the hallway to Dan who was now just returning the hall pass to the younger girl, but instead of giving it back he just dropped it to the ground. "No wonder why! He's such a jerk!" Dan happened to catch Cy looking at him and the took the opportunity to wink at her before returning to the girl he was harassing. Cy's response was to just shudder uncomfortably.

"So, do you guys really have a pet lion?" Connie inquired as the twins merely nodded in unison. She laughed a little, accepting the absurdities, "Wow! To think I'm friend's with people who own a lion, I can never tell my parents that, they'd probably move again." She uncomfortably cleared her throat then said, "Come on, let's make our way over to the computer lab."

* * *

The computer lab was a huge oval room with rounded rows of desks with laptops and wireless mouses stationed for every seat. In the middle of the round was a man, most likely fresh out of college, seated at a nice sleek steel desk that had a rather large gaming computer with all the bells and whistles you'd think of when the term gamer came to mind. "Hey, Mr. Snedeker!" Ronnie addressed the man with a familiar tone.

"Ronnie, please tell me you're not cutting class, again?" Mr. Snedeker got up from his desk, now noticing the smaller Finn, Connie, and Cy, who was still clinging to Ronnie like a toddler would to their parent. "Oh umm… my mistake, I don't recognize these kids, they must be new." He approached the quartet with a bent gait, "I'm Mr. Snedeker, the technology and computer teacher here at Crestwood! And you all are?"

Finn approached the teacher first and shook his hand firmly saying, "I'm Finn, the monkey girl is my sister Cy, and this is Connie. We're all new here and Ronnie is our tour guide for the day."

Mr. Snedeker shook the girls' hands lightly, "It's a pleasure to meet you all, but I have to ask are you all just skipping out on the tour to play video games?"

"Video games?" The three new kids all said in unison.

Ronnie removed Cy from his shoulders, setting her down lightly, "Mr. Snedeker is a pretty famous gamer on Splitch, and he uses his personal computer to make his videos and streams here as well."

"Oh well, no," Connie began nervously, realizing she had no idea why they needed to be here. In fact, she should be getting a more professionally guided tour, "We're here because uhh-"

Finn finished the statement without hesitation, "We are doing research for a project." Mr. Snedeker just looked at the kids pondering their motives, "Honest!" Connie and Ronnie nodded in agreement while Cy began to wander about the room.

Mr. Snedeker put his hands deep into his jacket pockets with a sigh, "Well, as long as it's school related," he shifted his posture to stand a bit more upright, "Ronnie, the elective arts teachers are having a meeting soon, so you can all stay here, but if anyone asks you're all helping me with a project. Ms. Adkins has been on my case lately with letting students skip classes and hang out here, but I think she's just jealous that I got her dream job with far less qualifications." He laughed a hearty gut-buster, and then passed the kids making his way to the classroom door, "I'll be back in an hour for my before my next class comes in." Without another word he left the room, and the kids to all the different devices available.

The walls were all lined with tablets, do-dads, and various pieces of technology that lined the walls behind glass cabinetry which made the room seem way bigger thanks to the reflection it produced. Cy was interested in making funny faces and animal noises in the glass reflection rather than doing research, but Finn pulled her away and sat her down at a nearby computer, "Hey, what!? Why do I have to do the research? This is your Everest, not mine."

Finn smacked his own face lightly in exasperation, "Because I can't type due to my… dyslexia, remember?" He shook his head.

"Oh, that's right, silly me," Cy began typing away. First, she began to look for pictures of cute animal babies, and was 'oooing' and 'awwing' at all the funny looking baby animals. Then when she was done with her search, she jumped onto her social media, and started posting about her first day in school:

_I never knew school would be so interesting, I've learned nothing, but I made friends. Also why do some people say their gonna get fried when they get home. Are they like a chicken going in a deep frier? This isn't something I heard today, but Lion knows what I'm talking about._

Connie just looked at the twins utterly flabbergasted, "You do realize typing helps with dyslexia, right?" Cy stopped messing around on her SpaceFace account and just looked at Finn who looked back at her both dumbfounded by this assessment.

"I'll try typing in a moment, right now we need to find a place on the Earth that has strawberry fields and a huge crater," the twin boy instructed his sister as she signed out of SpaceFace and resumed their search.

After a few searches Cy threw her hands up in frustration, "Ugh this is taking forever!" Cy pouted, "Whenever I type strawberry field in the Boogle search engine it just gives me a hit song, how to tend gardens with fruit, and the perfect strawberry tart, which by the way…" She pulled out a pen from her pocket and a small notepad, and then started to jot down the recipe in the small spiral pad adorned with cartoony farm animals.

Connie was sitting right next to Cy being as patient as she could, "It's okay Cy, let me try." Cy relinquished her chair to Connie who hopped in quickly, "So I think I should start by cross referencing climates where strawberries are able to be grown, and Finn you said there was a huge crater nearby right?" She was typing so quickly everyone else's heads were spinning from the speed. "Hmm… it appears Scandinavia has a rather large abandoned strawberry field somewhere in the fjords, but there's not much information, except… there is mention of a crater from a meteor impact."

"Connie, what a fee-yord?" Cy asked sounding it out with great emphasis on 'fee'.

"A fjord is a deep canyon that is divided by a river usually formed from a melting glacier," she typed in some more words and immediately images of lush purple mountain ranges divided by clear waterways, "see these are fjords, and- hey wait a minute…" She pointed to a rather peculiar image that popped up, "that doesn't look like a fjord? Hold on," she clicked on the unusual image, causing it to double in size, "that looks like a strawberry field to me. Finn does this look familiar?" Finn tilted to monitor to face him, he gasped causing the others to jump, "So is it?"

Finn nodded slowly, "I guess we have to go to Scandinavia to get to the bottom of this mystery sis." He looked back at Cy who was already back to looking at her reflection the glass cabinetry.

Connie got up from the chair with a bit of a shocked face on, "Finn, you and Cy are twelve, how do you two expect to get to Scandinavia on your own?" Ronnie was just standing behind them wondering still what a fjord was, and why it was so important, "The amount of funding you'd need to get there would be astronomical alone considering how many people you'd have to pay off.

"Connie, we have a magical warp pad, and a magical lion, so I think we can do this," Finn chirped up. He walked over to Ronnie a stuck a heroic pose, "Let's all go, together!"

Ronnie just laughed at the odd afternoon he just signed on board for, "I don't know where Scandinavia is, but I'm in!"

"Me too!" Cy squeaked, "I'm gonna see a reindeer!" They all looked at Connie who appeared unsure about the whole thing.

"My mom would have a cow if she knew I went to Scandinavia, unsupervised, with a lion…" She then realized how silly it all sounded, "or I just don't say anything because the whole thing is insane!" She took a deep inhale, "I'm in too!"


	7. Cool Kids

_**The Universe Twins**_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter might seem very odd and jumbled, but there is a reason to the madness. In the next several chapter's there shall be flashback sequences to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!**

* * *

-A Garnet mom-swap fanfiction-

**Chapter 6: Cool Kids**

There was an excitement in the air for the kids as Connie had just gotten the okay to hang out with the twins and Ronnie after school as long as Mr. Universe had her home by six forty-five sharp, not a moment more, and she wanted to meet Greg as well as the twins. "Okay, mom, I promise I'll be home at the time you've asked for," Greg honked his horn for the kids to pile into the back of the truck, "Gotta go mom! Finn and Cy's dad just showed up, okay, yes… okay, I love you too! Bye mom, and thanks again!" Connie hung up her emergency cellphone and the four started walking to the van together.

Greg rolled the window down and jokingly said, "I could've sworn I only had two kids, but it's good to see you've made a friend today. Hey there, I'm Greg, you can hop in the back with Finny because Cy called shotgun on the way back, and we always honor shotgun. Oh, and you are, sir?"

Ronnie laughed at the older man, "Man, your dad is a pretty chill guy! I like you Greg, I'm Ronnie," he approached the driver's side door and stuck his hand out to shake Greg's. Greg took his hand and shook in a delighted vigor, "and I'm just tall."

"I actually thought you were a teacher," Greg awkwardly explained, "But- hop in Ronnie, you look like you enjoy rock music!" Ronnie nodded in approval and hopped into the back with Finn. Cy and Connie then approached Greg, "Oh and what's your name kiddo?"

"Connie Maheswaren, sir!" Connie stuck her hand out to shake Greg's and Greg actually had to roll down the window a bit more to reach Connie's hand, "Also, I hate to ask, but my mom wants me home by six forty-five, would you mind taking me home?"

Greg scratched his beard, "Yeah that's no problem, as long as you give me directions, we should be fine," he looked back into the trunk at Ronnie, "Where do you live, bud? I can take you home too!"

"Connie and I are actually neighbors so I can just get out at her house," Ronnie explained in a gleeful tone as Connie jumped into the back with the boys, and Cy opened the passenger door and hoisted herself up onto the bucket seat.

Cy buckled herself up and then exclaimed with her newfound assertiveness, "We're going to Scandinavia today, and I'm gonna see a reindeer dad!" Greg gave his daughter a skeptical look, but brushed it off as Finn closed the backdoors of the van and locked them up. Off they went to Beach City blasting Greg's CD at full volume.

* * *

"Absolutely not! You may not go to Scandinavia with Lion and two humans by yourself," Pearl was unquestionably floored at the suggestion. "I forbid you both from leaving Beach City, if I find out you two are using the warp pad without any of us around you two will be grounded from television for a millennium."

"A millennium, Pearl? Isn't that a bit extreme?" Greg was attempting to explain the difficulties in that punishment, but Pearl was standing her ground. Bismuth was just stoically standing behind Pearl essentially guarding the Warp Pad. Finn knew that they were trying to hide something from the kids, so they let it go… for now.

Connie sighed a bit in relief, "Well that's a shame, but honestly it's for the best. We aren't even prepared for a trip like that."

Cy was pouting heavily at Pearl, "But I wanted to see a reindeer! You meanie!"

Pearl was having enough of this, "End of discussion Cy, and for calling me a meanie, that's five years with no video games!" Cy's mouth fell open in exasperation.

"Pearl! That's pretty extreme," Greg ran to Cy's side and turned her around to face him. Her mouth still agape in disbelief. "Honey, you can't play video games for five days for sassing Pearl, not five years!" He looked at Pearl with a sorrowful face, "That's just crazy!" Greg said coming to his daughter's aid.

"Five years is nothing," Pearl plainly stated as if it was normal to ground a child that long, "she should be lucky I didn't say a whole decade. With her lifespan no longer dragged down with mind numbing games, it would be an easy task to wait out."

Greg looked Cy dead in the eyes, "Don't go to Scandinavia, please, for your old man?" Cy sighed, averted her gaze, and mumbled 'reindeer companion', but then looked at her father and pinky promised him without another word.

Cy hugged her father and then started to walk over to Connie and the boys, when Pearl addressed them again, "Where are you all going?" Pearl asked as the kids all made their way to the front door, "I thought humans tended to stay inside and play games when friends come around? After all that's all you and Peedee do when you are 'hanging out'. However, I really don't understand why you say it when nobody is being-"

"PEARL!" Greg sternly caught her before she made a very distasteful comment.

Cy and Connie laughed while the boys shook their heads. "We're gonna meet up with Rose at the Car Wash then hit up FunLand!" Cy shouted unable to contain her enthusiasm. Finn gave Cy a strange look, he didn't know Rose was staying at the Car Wash, and he doubted that Pearl knew either given the stern look upon her face. Cy began running outside with Ronnie and Connie followed them at a smooth walking pace, "I'm gonna win another droid!" Cy exclaimed before diving off the deck shouting, "Friendship cannonball!"

Finn, Connie, Greg, and Pearl all ran after Cy to make sure she was okay. Luckily Amethyst was below deck and caught the incorrigible Cy before she face-planted in the sand. The collective sigh of relief from the concerned party swept through the windy beach and gave Ronnie a good chuckle.

"What's going on Cy-clops?" Amethyst was inspired by her daring move, and did a backflip unprovoked while still holding onto Cy.

"We're going to grab Rose, and hang out at FunLand with our new friends! You should come with us Amethyst!" Cy said

Amethyst wasn't excited as Cy predicted her to be, "Pfft… No thanks I'll catch y'all laters." She waltzed past Cy with her nose held up to the sky, clearly, she wasn't thrilled either that Rose was still hanging out with the kids.

* * *

At their father's carwash the kids all sat around in a circle just chatting the time away while they waited on Rose. Well to be more accurate Cy was conversing with Connie and Ronnie, while Finn just sat awkwardly silent, yet it wasn't quite a stir for the others or cause for alarm. "I have this sixth sense when it comes to crane games," Cy was explaining her methods for success as Ronnie and Connie waited on baited breath hoping to pick up some wisdom from the tiny arcade game guru, "the secret is to find a sturdy or grippable object at the right angle. If there is two you like that are placed next to each other only go for both if you can see both prizes are above the mess of other prizes."

From the distance there was a pink and white blob approaching on the horizon, "Whoa, that's a huge bird!" Ronnie gawked causing the other three to look out behind them. It was Rose gliding in the air at a steadfast pace. Finn rolled his eyes uncertain about interacting with her, as the fighting was one thing, but to just show up like nothing ever happened was just plain infuriating.

Cy began to laugh while Connie just gave her a quizzical look, "That's our friend Rose Quartz, and I don't know how she's able to fly but she can." Finn was looking off into the distance, ignoring Rose's looming figure flying in behind them, getting bigger with every second.

"Finn, what's wrong?" Connie asked him with a concerned look.

Finn looked around noticing Rose was just a few feet away at this point and was preparing for descent, "It's nothing." Finn flashed as kind of uneasy smile at Connie as butterflies starting to whirl in his stomach making him feel sick to his stomach.

Rose landed a few steps away gracefully on one toe, and then slowly planting her feet on the ground. Cy smiled as the gem's shadow covered the kids, "Ronnie and Connie, this is Rose! Rose, meet Ronnie and Connie!"

Rose extended her hand to shake as the two kids got up from the ground, "It's a pleasure to meet humans that are in between stages of life." She shook Ronnie's hand first, "I didn't realize that human children could come in adult size! How fascinating?" She smiled a big grin at the boy who was shaking in his shoes trying to say something in return, but he was absolutely tongue-tied. Rose then turned her attention to Connie, "You remind me of a human that I used to know thousands of years ago, she was older than you are, but you both have very similar faces."

After a hello to Finn, which was rebuked by a cold shoulder, and an unenthusiastic wave. The kids and Rose started to make their way down the street back towards the shore shops, Finn was still giving Rose very short and one-worded responses whenever Rose addressed him, and clearly, she didn't care to ask or talk about his sour mood. He anticipated this after how she treated Pearl a few weeks ago.

That didn't stop her from being the center of attention as usual though, "So my body is composed of light, and the gemstone is my true body. I can fly because since my projected body is lighter than almost anything, it defies gravity, isn't that just fascinating Connie?" She smiled with a slight hint of arrogance.

The group was almost near FunLand, but before that stop Cy immediately diverted once seeing Peedee in the window for Fryman's snack shack, "Hey Peedee!" The confident Cy was on the prowl, "Just wanted to stop by and say 'hey'," she casually flipped her hair, which was causing Peedee to blush madly, "we're heading to FunLand right now, but I wanted to stop by… and do this while I had this boost of carefree energy." She leaned in and gave the boy a peck on the cheek, then turned tail running back to the others leaving Peedee in a state of shock, and awe.

Finn lightened up upon seeing that cute little display, "You sly kitty!" He softly punched Cy in the upper arm, who beamed wildly. Ronnie was glaring daggers back at Peedee, while Rose and Connie shared an aside chuckle to themselves.

* * *

Ronnie and Connie were blown away by the amount of games at their disposal when they had entered FunLand, and both were not sure where to start. However, in their enthusiasm they forgot the most important thing, "I don't have any money for tokens, do you Ronnie?" Connie just longingly looked at the taller kid who just simply pouted.

"Well don't you worry about that!" Cy ran up to the owner of the arcade, a jovial man by the name of Mr. Smiley. She tapped on his arm to get the man's attention.

Mr. Smiley was just taking in the business of the day when he felt the tiny hand of Cy. He looked to his left and almost jumped three feet in the air, "Freaky Universe girl, please don't scare me like that. My heart can't take to many surprises anymore."

"Sorry, Mr. Smiley," she apologized with a slight tinge of uneasiness welling up inside her, "Since we haven't been here since the fire fiasco, we wanted to enact our month of free games!" She batted her tiny eyes.

Mr. Smiley cupped his bald head into his left hand a bit nervous, "I did promise that to your aunt didn't I-" he then looked over to see Finn with their two friends and Rose, "Well it's not a lot of you, but tell no one of our arrangement, kid." With that being said he begrudgingly parted ways with the coin dispenser belt from his waistline, "When you're done, I need that back, that has enough tokens for at least the next hour." He sighed, "I need to stop striking deals with customers who slip and fall. Should just get the insurance for that, anyway I have to go fill another coin dispenser belt, so you kids and your freaky young grandma have fun now!"

Cy returned triumphantly holding the full coin dispenser belt with Connie and Ronnie just looking on in absolute awe. They started to jump up in down in excitement, while Finn laughed at their giddiness, and Rose smiled at the riled children.

The euphoria was broken by a voice coming from behind them all, "Yo Rose, Rose!" The group turned around to be met by another group of older kids, "I thought that was you! I haven't seen you since that day we all swam with dolphins in the bay." It was Jenny Pizza, accompanied by three boys and another girl who was shorter than Jenny with blonde hair.

The blonde girl immediately ran up to Finn and Cy, "Hey guys, how are ya! I haven't seen you two since you were toddling around." Finn and Cy both lit up with happiness as they hugged the girl and rejoiced by shouting her name: "SADIE!" Sadie Miller used to babysit the twins when they were very young, before she started working at the Big Donut, and it had been a few years since they'd all been together, "So you guys know Jenny." Sadie let go of the embrace and began making introductions, "That's Lars over there he's my coworker at the Big Donut," his demeanor was very standoffish, in fact he seemed to be in a perpetual state of boredom and angst. "That's Buck Dewey, the mayor's son!" She pointed to a very mellowed out looking guy who merely whispered: "Hey, what's up," from behind shades hiding his eyes that gave his presence a cool aura. "And that's-"

"Oh, it's okay Sadie I got this one, I noticed your voice was hoarse earlier," Sadie smiled at a tall lanky blond guy who approached from the left. He was wearing a bright orange tracksuit with the top unzipped with a 'Disco Drop Divers' t-shirt underneath, "Plus I know these two," he chuckled deeply, "well kinda, they know Onion. I'm Sour Cream, I think I met you before Finn, but it's rad to meet you again, friend. Your Cy, right? I could rave to some Cy energy right now; do you have any singing skills or instruments that you play."

Cy was a little stunted by the guy's forwardness, but she still was riding off her 'friendship freefall back into anxiety' as she was calling it. She thought about it, and then burped randomly. The sound inspired her though so she just continued to try and make noises with her mouth. Some whistly tones were even coming out, everyone was just vibing to the swift beatbox brought up out of nowhere.

"Oh yeah," Sour Cream began to breakdance right in the middle of FunLand as the whole group just started to sway around the dude as he cut up a rug. The group started to attract some attention as the combination of the two was just undeniably good. Rose and the rest of the teens started backing up Sour Cream as background dancers. This random moment was turning into a full-on concert experience; people were dancing, Cy wasn't nervous, Ronnie and Connie were having a good time, and Finn even felt like he could stand to be in Rose's company perhaps she wasn't absolutely awful.

Mr. Smiley emerged from the back and was extremely confused at the mass of people who were practically packed into the arcade dancing like there was no tomorrow, but now Cy had found a steady match with some of the arcade machines filling in empty spaces between her beats. "What in the world?" He grabbed a microphone from off his utility belt and addressed the amped up crowd, "Excuse me, if you are not here enjoying games please exit my business before I call the authorities for loitering, please and thank you. If you feel inclined to stay and enjoy some fun games it is happy hour where it's double the tokens for a dollar. That's right eight tokens instead of four!" The speech kept going on the background as the group started to filter its way out through the exiting masses of people.

"That was tight kid!"

"I was having so much fun, thank you!"

"You all were so strong together!"

"That made my day."

"I wonder if they're a traveling performance group?"

"The music was so awesome!"

"That guy once ripped me off by giving me three tokens for a dollar."

That was just a few of the musings and ramblings they heard as they crossed the boardwalk and everyone just looked onto the beach, slowly staring to mingle. Connie and Sadie began chatting about how mad Mr. Smiley was;

"I was about to pee my pants laughing when he started doing his FunLand promotional pitch. Also, you got some insane moves Connie, I wish I had the confidence to move bigger."

"What are you talking about? You have such great moves, but yeah let yourself go bigger! Hit those power dance moves girl, I just met you, but I know you can do it!"

Meanwhile Finn and Sour Cream struck up a conversation about 'Disco Drop Divers' providing the soundtrack to Picker Knights season one:

"That whole backtrack to the fight with Count Monte Crispo was composed by the lead singer in one hour! It's insane, that track is literally what got Picker Knights renewed for a second season."

"Did you know Jederikka Corlin who voices Tiny Jasmine provided the howling noises and the screams on the track, Finn?"

"Excuse me! I had- I had no idea, wow Tiny Jasmine must have great range to do that! Is she into music as well?"

"Oh yeah, I listen to Jederikka Corlin all the time! She's got this one song that's just so beautiful it makes me cry, and I rarely cry. She screams the lyrics, and goes soft on a few refrains. It's wicked, do you have SpaceFace? I could send you a link to her best hit songs."

Rose, Jenny, Lars, Buck found themselves all making plans to get ice cream after riding out to the hillside, "We should all go! I love my hill, it has so many beautiful flowers, and a natural spring lake, and sometimes little gem creatures spring to life there too!"

Finn looked at Rose with a cockeyed stare, "Little gem creatures? Like baby gems?" Rose wasn't sure about the baby part, but she nodded anyway smiling giddily, fluttering her eyelids almost like she was begging. Finn turned to Connie and Ronnie, "Connie how much time do you two have?"

Connie pulled out her phone and unlocked the home screen, "We have two hours and forty-five minutes exactly, but cut of about a half hour for travel time. So about two hours and fifteen minutes." She put her phone away in her pocket, "Let's go see this magical foreign hill!"

The older kids all piled into Jenny's buggy which was parked in the alleyway next to FunLand, and shouted to Rose that they'd meet them there, "See you in a bit!" and with that Jenny pulled off in an instant.

"How are we gonna all get to the hill from here, if they had to take a car, I'm guessing it's kinda far," Ronnie interjected with his concerns.

Rose chuckled at the absurd notion, "Leave that up to me, Ronnie." She put her fingers to her lips and whistled loudly, which pretty much summoned lion as he proceeded to jump out of a temporal portal defying time and space.

Ronnie and Connie both looked on at the pink lion before them, "Your lion is pink? Is that healthy?" Connie asked a little perplexed, but also curious about the creature. Cy had naturally proceeded to smash her face into lion's mane, arms wide open for a hug.

Finn smiled at Connie and said in a triumphant voice, "Lion is as healthy as ten lions, he's glowing with health," he approached the animal as well, turned back to face Connie, Ronnie, and Rose, but was greeted by Lion scooping him up by the back of the shirt by lion's teeth. "Lion, put me down, this shirt is a collector's item, you're gonna put holes in it! Rose, do something, please." Rose was too busy laughing with Ronnie, Connie, and Cy to do anything.

After a moment of watching amusing attempts to free himself, Cy decided Finn had enough, "Lion, down." As requested, Lion put down Finn gently without much damage done to his shirt, just some Lion drool on the back. Rose helped the kids all get onto lion's back, and immediately they jumped through another portal in time and space, it was produced by lion's roar! It was unbelievable, there was even time for Rose to pass through as well, and before the kids could register what was happening, they were already hillside.

Cy was absolutely upended by the insanely fast travel that she rolled off of lion onto a bed of peonies that broke her fall. She was sweating and panting heavily with half lidded eyes, "Rose, what the-" she started to pull herself up from the ground, "heck was… oh no!" She got up quickly with her mouth clamped shut, and she ran into a thicket where she lost her lunch.

Ronnie and Connie both got off lion's back, seemingly a bit shook from the travel as well, but only experiencing weakness in their legs and wobbly knees. Finn stayed mounted wincing at the sound of his sister's regurgitation. By the time Cy finished vomiting in the brush, Rose had materialized on the other side of the portal, and the kids all watched as the portal closed up behind her, "Well wasn't that just something, grand!" Rose smiled as she placed one hand onto Lion's side. The kids all stared at her with strained faces, "What?"

The ravine and hillside were quite lovely: all the plants were a lustrous shade of green and everywhere you looked animals were frolicking to the area like pigs to mud, and even though Cy was still queasy- nothing stopped her from obsessing over the animals, even if the enthusiasm was intermingled with full blown nausea. Finn and Connie were sitting by the pond's edge to wait for the little gem creatures Rose mentioned earlier, both dipping their fingers into the water and flicking the droplets on each other. All the while Ronnie and Rose were sitting upon two boulders with a third between them like a table. Ronnie was demonstrating 'rock-paper-scissors' to Rose who was unsurprisingly drawn to rock every time. The cool mountain air was blowing intermittently every two and a half minutes through the ravine allowing for a natural whistle tone to be heard. Rose explained to the kids that is why she own's the spot, never had she'd seen or heard lovely sounds produced by the Earth, and while, yes, rain and any other natural phenomenon could sound lovely nothing compared.

* * *

In the time they'd been talking and enjoying the area, Jenny had finally managed to get the gang of teens up to the hillside. The jeep radio was blasting electronica as Sadie, Lars, and Sour Cream all hopped out from the backseat, "That was a pretty soft ride, eh, Buck?" Jenny asked her friend whose face was between his own legs, "How's your nausea?" She rubbed his back gently."

Cy was next to the car holding onto the side at this point looking for something solid and sturdy to keep her standing, "Mine's," she did a nasty burp that made her flinch, "still full blown. Buck? You get car sick?" Buck merely raised his head and nodded a bit.

Jenny kept rubbing his back, "Usually takes him five minutes to recover, but- uh- what made you sick Cy?"

Cy pointed to lion, who was curling up for a nap, as she let out another sickly belch, "Well, if you want to hang out in my car until you feel better, feel free. Buck will keep an eye on you right Buck?" He shot a thumbs up in response.

Finn, Rose, Jenny, Sour Cream, Ronnie, and Connie all stood in a circle a few feet away from the Jeep, partially to avoid projectile vomiting, and partially due to the fact that Finn was standing on top of a big rock making him eye level with the teens.

"Hey, let's go sit by the water," Lars gestured to the pond as Sadie looked back at everyone discussing a game of Freedom, "I kinda don't feel like playing. Also, Rose can sniff a person out, and it's kinda freaky."

The two wandered over to the water's edge and sat down looking out towards the middle of the pond, it wasn't huge, but Rose had warned them it was quite deep. "You know Lars, I gotta be honest with you, I hate working at the Big Donut as much as you do."

Lars chuckled as Sadie's cheeks grew flush, "I know, it sucks, but hey it's a paycheck am I right?" Lars looked at Sadie and changed his tone noticing how flustered she looked, "And… I have to admit… I l-ike working with you a lot," behind them the others had started listening in on their conversation.

Sadie put her hand on top of Lars's, "I like working with you too… it's sometimes one of the few reasons I still go in to work."

"Well, since we're friends now, why don't we just quit together!" Lars flipped his palm to hold Sadie's hand, "Well… sometimes I- umm… Sadie?"

She could feel his palm getting sweaty, "Yes, Lars?" He looked deeply into Sadie's eyes who stared adamantly back.

"I'm really happy to just be sitting here with you," A look of realization had swept over both of their faces, as the two leaned in close, puckering their lips, and everyone watched on baited breath.

The moment was ruined by a freaky centipede looking corrupted gem, breaking the surface of the pond, and the ugly thing began squealing in an eerily grim tone. Lars shot up immediately not enjoying the sound of the bizarre monster, "What the heck is that thing!?" He started running towards the car and then past it without a second thought. Buck and Cy both lifted their heads up in time to see the freaky creature make another squeal, and that was enough for the two to start heaving over the side of the Jeep.

"Rose, what is that thing?" Jenny asked huddling behind Rose with Sour Cream, Connie, and Ronnie. She then remembered Sadie, "SADIE! Book it, girl!" It seemed Sadie was frozen in fear as she didn't respond to Jenny's words. The Centipede thing took Sadie by her left ankle with its tail end and dangled the poor girl above its mouth.

"LION!" Rose cried out, then it was as if time stood still, or Rose and her lion moved quicker than the speed of light. In one second the great sleepy lion had awakened was now having a sword plucked from it's mane by Rose. In the next second Rose had slashed the thing without remorse as it poofed, leaving its gem behind. Luckily Sour Cream was already on the move, and had to leap out in order to catch Sadie.

The two hit the ground coughing up dirt and dust, "Are you okay, Sadie?" Sour Cream inquired as Sadie got up from his arms and dusted herself off. She nodded that she was fine, but the expression on her face told a different story.

"We are not telling my mom about this!" Connie broke the silence as everyone began to laugh. Rose had just bubbled the gem and sent it off to the temple without further incident.

"But I'm totally telling my mom!" Ronnie began enthusiastically, "That's if she's awake when I get home, well even if she is passed out from her Merlot binge, I could always tell her in the morning."

* * *

Connie was five minutes early when Greg dropped her and Ronnie off, "Man, this sucks! When will I get to see you guys again?" Ronnie was pouty and clearly upset, but Connie her hand upon his big shoulder to console him.

"Since we're neighbors, we can hangout sometimes, but not all the time," she nervously chuckled, "my parents are extremely strict, so we'll be lucky when we get to hang."

Cy and Finn both got up to hug their behemoth friend, "We'll hang out soon Ronnie, in the meantime try to keep up with not bullying anyone, okay, big guy?" Finn also patted him on the back reassuringly.

"Except your creepy wad of a brother, just try not to get caught," Cy snuggled Ronnie's belly while he gently kept his arms around her.

Connie shifted nervously as she noticed the porch light go on outside of her house. The three smaller children and Greg said their goodbyes to Ronnie as Dr. Maheswaren stepped out onto the porch in a lab coat, and finishing up what appeared to be a boring one-sided conversation on her cellphone, "Send the lab results to my office on Monday, I'll be off this weekend, and I don't want Dr. Parnassus to take this from under my nose." With that she hung up her phone as Connie walked up to greet her mother. The Universe family was slowly trailing her up the front walkway clearly intimidated by the woman standing before them.

Connie approached her mom acknowledging her, "Hi, mom. Thanks for letting me hang out with my new friends today, I had a lot of fun with-" Dr. Maheswaren held a single finger up to silence her daughter.

Her gaze rose to meet the twins and Greg, yet the disinterest and mild loathing in her eyes did not fade. She pocketed her cellphone, gave her daughter a quick one-armed hug, and walked up to be face to face with the Universe family, "Hello, I'm Dr. Priyanka Maheswaren, Connie's mother." Her thin line of a mouth curved up into a slight smirk as she stuck her hand out to shake Greg's, "Just by how shiny your hair is in the streetlight and how natural your baldness looks on you- oh yes, and the dark circles under your eyes. You must be quite a worrisome yet doting father, but very practical parent judging by your healthy skin, and nails. You're attire comfortable, but very rock-star, hmm…" her gaze then moved down towards the twins, "You two must be the kind kids who escorted my daughter around school, hi there!" Greg was rather dubious but also mildly insulted, yet at the same time somehow flattered.

Finn was bold to speak first, "Dr. Maheswaren? Can Connie come to hang out sometimes after uh… we're all done school?" He apprehensively wondered as he'd noticed Connie become flush in her face with nervousness.

Dr. Maheswaren's gaze became more easy, "You are really bold, you all must have had a fun time." Connie's mouth fell open in shock, "Seeing that she is home safely, and on time- I will have to discuss with my husband an appropriate schedule for Connie." Priyanka took a sly side glance back towards her daughter who was holding her breath, "She just has to keep up with her studies, but first I will have to talk to her father."

Greg pulled out his wallet and plucked his business card, "Well I'm Greg Universe," he handed off the card to Priyanka who simply tucked it away in her coat pocket, "Call me when you have everything settled, and I'll make sure she's home in a timely fashion."

"Mr. Universe, normally someone of your appearance would alarm me, but you seem have a great head on your shoulders," Priyanka kept her sly smirk on, "Now what are your names kids?" She looked back down to the twins who were both offput and anxious in Connie's mother's presence.

Cy quickly shot her tiny hand up to shake the doctor's hand, "I'm Cy," she gulped intensely. Priyanka shook Cy's hand and next Finn introduced himself with less anxiety than his sister, but still enough for his face to get hot.

"Well, this has been a lovely introduction, once again, thank you Greg for bringing my Connie home safely," she and Connie walked up to the porch looking back. Connie and Finn both looked back at one another and winked knowing that the last part was partially a lie, "We'll be in touch soon! Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" Everyone had exclaimed as the street lights started to go on.


End file.
